IBRO News 2008

Elsevier, The Boulevard, Langford Lane,Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, UK

© IBRO International Brain Research Organization

V o l u m e 3 6 2 0 0 8w w w . i b r o . i n f o

IBRONEWS

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IBRO PRESIDENTTO PROMOTEGLOBAL INITIATIVES

In this issue:Funding 2Fellows & Alumni 3News 4-5The Regions 6Education & Training 7About IBRO 8

Carlos Belmonte, former IBRO Secretary-General from1998 to 2001, began his term as President of IBRO inJanuary 2008. He is head of a research unit on SensoryTransduction and Nociception at the Instituto deNeurociencias de Alicante, which he created 20 years ago,and Full Professor of Human Physiology in the MedicalSchool, University Miguel Hernandez, Alicante, Spain. In2002, he was appointed member of the Spanish RoyalAcademy of Sciences (La Real Academía de CienciasExactas, Físicas y Naturales) in recognition of hisoutstanding scientific career.

While he was Secretary-General, Carlos Belmonte initiated many changeswithin IBRO during what was a critical period of development in theorganization's framework and programmes. IBRO designated six Regionsbased on geographical, social and economic criteria. Each Region was tohave a Regional Committee, which would establish its own priorities andreceive a modest annual budget from IBRO to be used for the organizationof activities in that area. Those Regions were, and remain, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, US/Canada and WesternEurope. Now that the Regional Committees are well established andorganizing successful schools, Prof. Belmonte is urging IBRO to encourage

interregional collaboration in joint programmes as a way of developingglobal initiatives.

Carlos Belmonte recognizes the problems involved for scientists carryingout basic research in countries with limited academic and scientificinfrastructures. There is a constant demand for assistance in neurosciencefrom scientists in these countries. For this reason, he says, IBRO iscommitted to providing training opportunities for students and researchersfrom such areas so that talents can be developed and disadvantagedcountries given a brighter future in science. He considers of particularimportance IBRO's new programme, Women in World Neuroscience,promoted by his predecessor Albert Aguayo and current Secretary-GeneralMarina Bentivoglio. He sees it as a fundamental tool to conciliate thedevelopment of neuroscience research with the necessary promotion ofwomen’s participation in science.

Looking to the future, Carlos Belmonte considers that IBRO can play aleading role in promoting the development of neuroscience research in allcountries of the world through the promotion and coordination of national,regional and international initiatives, actively involving scientists fromdeveloped countries in training and assisting local research activities of theircolleagues from less favoured regions. He considers IBRO especially wellplaced to address this task because of its extended international presencethat respects the cultural diversity of the different countries of the world.

Science can establish common cultural link

Kenyan scientist awardedLevi Montalcini Fellowship … page 3

IBRO web site www.ibro.info

IBRO FORGES LINK WITH KEMALI FOUNDATION

On April 16, 2008, in Naples, Italy, Professor Carlos Belmonte, President ofIBRO, and Professor Dargut Kemali, founder and President of the Dargut andMilena Kemali Foundation, entered into an agreement whereby theFoundation’s activities will form an integral part of IBRO’s promotionalactivities in neuroscience research. At the same time, the Foundation’s officein Naples, overlooking the beautiful gulf of Naples, will become available asa site for selected IBRO meetings, to which it will add a uniqueMediterranean flavour.

The Dargut and Milena Kemali Foundation for Basic and ClinicalNeurosciences was established in 1996 by Dargut Kemali, a renownedpsychiatrist at the University of Naples, and by the will of his late wife MilenaAgostini Kemali (1926-1993). It aims to promote research in the field of basicand clinical neurosciences, thus bridging the interests of its two founders.With this aim the Foundation awards every two years the International Dargutand Milena Kemali Prize, honouring important research contributions in thefield of basic and clinical neurosciences for scientists under 45 years of age.The Prize is awarded at the FENS Forum, where the recipient presentshis/her achievements at the Kemali Lecture. The Kemali Prize has beenawarded to Tamas F. Freund (1998), Robert Malenka (2000), Daniele Piomelli(2002), Cornelia I. Bargmann (2004) and Patrik Ernfors (2006). In July 2008the Kemali Prize was awarded to Massimo Scanziani (La Jolla, USA), whogave the Kemali Lecture at the FENS Forum in Geneva entitled BasicOperations of Cortical Inhibitory Circuits.

Until the present agreement, the Foundation has also awarded a Dargut andMilena Kemali scholarship every two years for young Italian investigators inthe field of basic and clinical neurosciences. Through the agreement signed

with IBRO, this will now be substituted with an international initiative thatcontemplates a partnership in a Kemali-IBRO Mediterranean School ofNeuroscience, to be held every two years.

It is envisaged that the new school will be organized by IBRO in the sameway that its neuroscience schools worldwide are organized and with the aimof promoting the training of young researchers in basic and clinicalneurosciences. The school will probably be held in Naples, with studentsfrom several Mediterranean countries.

New partnership and neuroscience school envisaged

Marina Bentivoglio, Dargut Kemali and Carlos Belmonte

Carlos Belmonte

IBRO acknowledges its donors … page 5

New Women in World NeuroscienceCommittee … page 8

IBRO/UNESCOinitiative in AfricaIBRO and the International Basic SciencesProgramme (IBSP) of UNESCO have formed apartnership to create Building Brain Sciences inAfrica, in a bid to develop and sustain brainresearch in Africa. The new collaborationenhances the long-standing association betweenUNESCO and IBRO as the core for a broad-basedpartnership with other international and Africanorganizations. With this new initiative UNESCOIBSP will provide support for joint IBRO-UNESCOactivities during 2008 and 2009.

IBRO through its Africa Regional Committee(ARC) has an established programme ofneuroscience training in several African countriesand it is anticipated that IBRO Affiliated Societiesand supporters (governmental agencies andprivate foundations) around the world will alsocontribute to this effort. It is anticipated thatBuilding Brain Sciences in Africa will act as acatalyst to attract new support in Africa forcapacity building.

The aims of the IBRO-UNESCO IBSP partnershipare to promote neuroscience training in Africa,establish research collaborations in Africa,encourage research cooperation of Africantrainees and investigators with scientists andinstitutions outside Africa, encourage and supportreturn of well-trained African investigators to theirhome countries, reinforce interactions betweenbasic and clinical brain sciences in Africa, andincrease public awareness of brain research forthe solution of health problems in Africa.

IBRONEWS 2008

IBRO’S FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES 2009-2010

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Symposia & Workshops Programme:funding recipients 2008Africa Region1st Basic Neurosciences Satellite Symposium andTechnical Workshop, Morocco, Dec 13-21, 2008.Asia Pacific RegionFirst Meeting of the Indian Subcontinent Branch ofthe Intl Neuropeptide Society, India, Feb 2-3, 2008.Basic Neurochemical Techniques for YoungNeuroscientists: Molecular Aspects of Brain Agingand Neurological Disorders, India, Nov 17-27, 2008.Central & Eastern Europe RegionT-type Calcium Channels: from Discovery toChannelopathies, Ukraine, June 5–7, 2008.6th Intl Symp Experimental and ClinicalNeurobiology, Slovak Republic, Sept 8-11, 2008.Neuroimaging of Developmental Disorders,Croatia, Sept 12-16, 2008.Non-Conducting Membrane Mechanisms ofUnder-Threshold Signal Transduction in Neurons,Armenia, Oct 23-25, 2008.Latin America RegionNeuronal Signalling and Plasticity, Chile,Jan 10-15, 2008.10th Argentine Neuroscience Workshop,Argentina, April 9-13, 2008.1st Intl Workshop on Neuroimmunology, Cuba, Apr 19-22, 2008.III Intl Course on Neurobiology, Colombia, Apr 21-24, 2008.II Latin American School on Computational Neuroscience, Brazil, July 13-Aug 1, 2008.Western Europe RegionNeuroprotection and Neurorepair, Germany, May 17-20, 2008.Young Physiologists' Symposium 2008, UK, July 12-13, 2008.10th Intl Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Turkey, Sept 1-5, 2008.

III Intl Course on Neurobiology, Bogota, Colombia

IBRO helps the Brain Campaignaround the worldNew Chair for Public Education CommitteeIBRO’s Public Education Committee (PEC) isresponsible for organizing IBRO’s input into theBrain Campaign, supporting events around theworld that aim to further public awareness ofthe brain and nervous system. In 2008, a newPEC Committee with representatives from allthe IBRO regions and led by new Chair ElspethMcLachlan (Australia) succeeded the previousCommittee chaired by Esther Binns (UK).

One of PEC’s activities is the translation intolocal languages of the British NeuroscienceAssociation’s booklet, Neuroscience: Scienceof the Brain: An Introduction for YoungStudents (copyright now owned by IBRO).Chapters in the booklet cover topics from basicscience to neurological disorders, neurodegeneration and the development of drug addiction. IBROhas commissioned around 20 different language versions of the booklet, available on the web site.

Most of IBRO’s support goes to events conducted during Brain Awareness Week or at some othertime of the year. In 2008, many of the activities involved school and junior university students and

many were run by the alumni of IBRO regionalschools. Support was provided for events in Lamjung(Nepal), Cochin, Angamaly and Chandigarh (India),Perth (Australia), Nairobi (Kenya), Calabar, Zariaand Ile-Ife (Nigeria), Manzanillo (Cuba), Yerevan(Armenia), Kampala (Uganda), Portsmouth (Dominica),Manzanillo (Cuba), Montreal (Canada), and Cameroon.

The International Brain Bee competition, created forsenior schoolchildren by Norbert Myslinski (Universityof Maryland, USA), is now held throughout NorthAmerica and many other countries. The contest aimsto motivate high-school children to learn about thebrain and inspire them to consider careers in theneurosciences. The PEC supported Brain Beecompetitions in India, Kenya and Uganda in 2008.IBRO hopes that national champions from all over theworld will soon be competing in the International BrainBee finals.

Visit the Brain Campaign web site www.braincampaign.org

PEC Chair Elspeth McLachlan

BAW 2008, Ile-Ife, Nigeria: Federal RoadSafety Corps learn about vulnerability ofthe brain

International Brain Bee Finalists

New FRSQ-INMHAAlbert J. AguayoFellowship announced

A new fellowshipfor students fromdevelopingcountries wasannounced byAlain Baudet,Director, le Fondsde la rechercheen santé duQuébec (FRSQ)and Remi Quirion,Director, Instituteof Neurosciences,Mental Health

and Addiction (INMHA) of the CanadianInstitutes of Health Research (CIHR), at the5th Annual Meeting of Institute ofNeurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction(INMHA), Toronto, Canada, May 2007. Thefellowship is named after Dr Albert J. Aguayoof McGill University, past President and pastSecretary-General of IBRO, to mark hisoutstanding contribution to neuroscience inQuebec, Canada and the world. The purposeof the award is to enable students fromdeveloping countries to spend a three-monthterm in a Quebec laboratory. One fellowshipwill be awarded annually.

Albert Aguayo

Return HomeFellowship supportsBuenos Aires labAlberto Javier Ramos received an IBRO ReturnHome Fellowship in October 2007, one year aftersetting up his lab at the Instituto de BiologíaCelular y Neurociencia “Prof. E. De Robertis”,Depto de Histología, Embriología, Biología Celulary Genética, Fac de Medicina, Universidad deBuenos Aires, Argentina. His project is on NFKBactivation by RAGE/S100B and neuronal survival.Preliminary results showed that he and hiscolleagues were on the right track and they nowhave evidence about NFKB activation by RAGE-S100B and S100B effects that are increased by

cellular stress both in primary neurons andastrocytes. Part of the IBRO funds were used toset up an animal model of sleep apnea byintermittent hypoxia, and they are now able to testsome of these ideas in vivo in a model thatreproduces this largely common humanpathology. The funds also enabled them to keepthe experiments running in order to complete thestory. They hope soon to publish some papers;poster presentations were sent to the SociedadArgentina de Neuroquímica Meeting 2007, and toSFN 2008 (Washington, DC) and Neurolatam2008 (Brazil). Javier says that the group’s financialneeds for 2008 are assured with the second partof the IBRO grant and the last part of their youngresearcher ANPCYT and CONICET PIP grants.

Rolando Aviles Reyes, Florencia Angelo and AlbertJavier Ramos

IBRO welcomes applicants forfunding 2009-10IBRO’s Funding Programme promotes neuroscience, especially in lesswell-funded countries, by providing support to high-qualityneuroscientists from diverse geographic and scientific areas(US/Canada Region excluded).

Research Fellowships: support to work abroad in good laboratoriesReturn Home Fellowships: aid to researchers trained overseas whowish return to their homeStudentships: support for short stays in good overseas laboratoriesTravel Grants: support participation at internationalneuroscience meetingsSymposia & Workshops: encourage neuroscience research andscholarship in regions of the world with limited funds for sciencePublic Education Events: increase public awareness worldwideabout the contributions made by brain research and its application tohuman diseases

All funding information on the IBRO web site http://funding.ibro.info

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NEWS FROM OUR FELLOWS AND ALUMNI

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Two Levi MontalciniFellowships awardedIn 2001 IBRO, with a generous donation from the Rita Levi Montalcini Foundation (named after Rita LeviMontalcini, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine), created two Levi Montalcini Fellowships forAfrican women neuroscientists. The fellowships are awarded to 1) a researcher for a two-year trainingperiod at a university abroad; 2) a researcher to spend two years at an African university, not in her own country.

Catherine Wairimu Gatome, a tutorial fellow inthe Dept. of Veterinary Anatomy and Physiology,University of Nairobi, Kenya, and currently at theUniversity of Zurich, Switzerland, has beenawarded the Levi Montalcini Fellowship forAfrican Women in Neuroscience (for overseasstudies for two years). In 2007 she went on anIBRO studentship to the University of Zurich tostart doctoral studies under the supervision ofProf. Hans-Peter Lipp on the morphologicalcorrelates for spatial navigation and memory inAfrican fruit bats. Two fruit bat species, Eidolonhelvum and Epomophorus wahlbergi, wereselected and their differences in migratorybehaviour, habitat type and foraging strategy werehypothesized to be reflective of the differences inthe hippocampal neurogenic potential and mossyfibre distribution. The findings could provideknowledge that can be used in the wider contextto explain the role of adult neurogenesis. The LeviMontalcini Fellowship will provide Catherine withthe chance to complete her doctoral studies, afterwhich she will return to the University of Nairobiwhere she hopes to continue to work with wildlifeto develop models that would give an insight into the neurobiology of ageing, memory and learning, andadvance research that will contribute to public health.

Henriette Uwimpuhwe was awarded a LeviMontalcini Fellowship in 2007 to study for an MScin medicine at the University of Cape Town, SouthAfrica. Henriette was born in Rwanda andeducated in Zimbabwe where she graduated witha BSc (Hons) in Applied Biology and Biochemistryin 2006. In June 2007, Henriette registered at theUniversity of Cape Town, where her supervisorsare Dr Jeanine Heckman, Dept of Neurology, andDr Sharon Prinz, Dept of Human Biology, UCT.The theme of her research is Molecular Analysis ofthe Decay Accelerating Factor as a PotentialSusceptibility Factor to Developing TreatmentResistant Ocular Muscle Involvement inMyasthenia Gravis. Her main aim is to investigatethe susceptibility of Myasthenia Gravis patients todevelop treatment resistant to external ocularmuscle paralysis.

Catherine Gatome

Henriette Uwimpuhwe

IBRO alumni take part in MBL andCSHL summer courses 2007The Joint Society for Neuroscience International Affairs Committee/National Academy of SciencesCommittee to the International Brain Research Organization (IAC-USNC/IBRO US/Canada) incollaboration with IBRO annually sponsor students to participate in courses at the Marine BiologyLaboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, MA, USA and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY,USA. The students are all IBRO alumni, having taken part either in IBRO Neuroscience Schools or theVisiting Lecture Team Programme. In summer 2007 eight international students were sponsored toattend courses. In addition, the IAC-USNC provided a travel fellowship for each of the MBL and CSHLfellows to attend the 2007 SfN meeting in San Diego.

MBL, Woods HoleJames Olopade (Dept. of Veterinary Anatomy, University ofIbadan, Oyo State, Nigeria) attended the MBL NeurobiologyCourse: “The high calibre of teachers and teaching in theoptical imaging and molecular biology section were rewardingand inspiring … The Monday evening lectures by accomplishedscientists expanded my horizon and educated me on the wayscience was going. The lab sessions, though intense, wereexciting particularly when we got results from the experiments

we tried out by ourselves.” In 2007 James received an IBRO Research Fellowship to study at PennState College of Medicine, USA, after which he will return to Nigeria.

Luis Pérez-Cuesta (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina) also took the Neurobiology Course. Heworks with crabs on memory at the University of Buenos Aires: “Beyond my expectations, this hasbeen the most exciting learning experience I ever had. The opportunity to learn from the mostrecognized scientists in the field was invaluable. One could feel not only their vast experience but alsotheir incredible commitment to teaching.”

Sadiq Yusuf (Dept. of Physiology, Kampala International University, Uganda) works on elucidating themechanisms involved in the regulation of communication between neural cells. He attended the NeuralSystem and Behavior course at MBL: “The course was one of most valuable scientific experiences I everhad. NS&B provided me with hands-on training in utilized state-of-the-art experimental techniques,which I believe will improve my research career tremendously. Techniques includedimmunohistochemistry, intracellular and extracellular recordings from neurons, patch clamp anddynamic current clamp recordings of different voltage-dependent currents, using different in vitro andin vivo preparations.”

CSHL, Cold Spring HarborAlbert Chiang (National Centre forBiological Sciences, Bangalore,India) works on the role of neuralactivity in the maintenance of theolfactory circuit in the adultDrosophila. He attended the CSHLcourse on Neurobiology ofDrosophila: “This three-week course

exposed me to scientists and their experimental techniques in the three broad sections of the courseon molecular neurobiology, electrophysiology and behaviour. This course has definitely built up myreserves of self-confidence and motivation … and for the future it has helped me network withneuroscientists across all stages, from postdocs to group leaders.”

Ashesh Dhawale (National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India) is pursuing his PhD underthe guidance of Dr Upinder Bhalla at NCBS, where his research is aimed at analysing aspects ofinformation transfer through the circuitry of the olfactory bulb, using two-photon microscopy inconjunction with calcium imaging. He participated in the CSHL course Imaging Structure & Function inthe Nervous System: “I had the opportunity to interact with many of the top researchers in the imagingfield, and learn the basics and beyond of several microscopy techniques, in particular, two-photonmicroscopy. With this knowledge, I was able to troubleshoot many of the problems I was faced duringthe construction of our own custom built two-photon microscope in Bangalore. I consider the scientificcontacts I made as one of the most important contributions of this course to my development as aresearcher.”

Sergiu P. Pasca (Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania) hasbeen involved in autism research for the last three years, working on the disturbances in the one carbonmetabolism and paraoxonase status in autism. “In June 2007, I had the great honour of participatingin the CSHL Workshop on Autism Spectrum Disorders. The organizers and their invited speakers vividlyillustrated to us how they are tackling the autism conundrum from different angles and with a diversityof approaches, from molecular to systems level. A practical lesson was the grant proposal competition;also groups of students with different expertise had to choose and develop a research project andpresent it on the last day.”

Eduardo Bouth Sequerra (Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio deJaneiro, Brazil), works on neuronal plasticity at a cellular rather than molecular level. He attended theAdvanced Techniques in Molecular Neuroscience course: “I thought my background in biology andgenetics would be a guarantee that the topics and techniques discussed would be familiar to me, butthe course included methods not used by many people. We saw neurons inside the animal using twodifferent methods!”

Ana Vanesa Torbidoni (Facultad de Ciencias Biomédicas, Universidad Austral, Buenos Aires, Argentina)was in the final stages of her PhD project on the role of endothelins in retinal cell survival mechanismsunder the direction of Dr Angela Suburo when she attended the Advanced Techniques in MolecularNeuroscience course: “The course immersed me in the present state-of-the-art in molecularneuroscience and produced immediate benefits. I was able to use some of the proceduresdemonstrated on the course, particularly those about RNA amplification, which is involved in my currentwork. The course also showed me different approaches to neuroscience problems and it is certainlyhelping me to decide the pathway I should follow as a post-doc.”

Russian scientist studies snailcourtship at McGillElena Samarova won an IBRO Research Fellowship in 2007 to work inDr Ronald Chase’s lab, Dept. of Biology, McGill University, Montreal,Canada. As a PhD student in Dr Pavel M. Balaban's research group,Laboratory of Cellular Neurobiology of Learning, Institute of HigherNervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences,Moscow, she had studied neuronal mechanisms of synaptic plasticity inthe snail, semi-intact snail's preparation models, and learning andmemory mechanisms via snail odour training. The McGill projectfocused on the neuronal mechanisms of mating behaviour andmotivation for sex in the hermaphroditic land snail Cornu aspersum.Elena is now a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr Jean-Claude Lacaille's lab, Dept. of Physiology,University of Montreal.

IBRO Research Fellow to work inOxford labSouth African Ilse Pienaar gained a 2008 IBRO Research Fellowship thatwill enable her to do cutting-edge research into Parkinson’s disease withDr Stephanie Cragg, Dept. of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics,University of Oxford, UK in their quest to decipher the function,desensitization and expression of nicotinic receptors on dopaminereceptors. Ilse attained her PhD in Medical Physiology under thesupervision of Prof. Willie Daniels, University of Stellenbosch, CapeTown, South Africa, when she made use of stereotaxic neurosurgerywith which selectively to lesion the nigrostrial axonal fibres to create aParkinson’s disease-like pathology in rodents.

Elena Samarova

llse Pienaar

JamesOlopade

Luis Pérez-Cuesta

SadiqYusuf

AlbertChiang

AsheshDhawale

Sergiu P.Pasca

EduardoSequerra

AnaTorbidoni

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NEUROSCIENCE NEWS FROM IBRO

IBRONEWS 2008

IBRO Book Fund delivers around the worldDuring the end of 2007 John Hildebrand, Chair of IBRO's School Board, was again able to secure anumber of donations for the IBRO Book Fund. They include several hundred copies of Neuroscienceby Purves (3rd edn) and 190 copies of Neurons in Action by Moore and Stuart (1st edn), donated bySinauer Press; 125 copies of CDs withFigures from Zigmond et al. FundamentalNeuroscience, donated by Elsevier Press;and ‘pretty much as many as we would like’of Ratiu and Talos' book Cross-sectionalAtlas of the Brain (with DVD) from HarvardUniversity Press. In addition, EvelyneSernagor (UK) was able to secure 23 copiesof the outgoing edition of the TheEncyclopedia of Neuroscience (CD version)from Elsevier Press. We were also able tooffer about 500 CD-ROMs of the BritishNeuroscience Association's bookletNeuroscience: the Science of the Brain, forwhich IBRO holds the copyright. We thank the publishers for donating these materials, especiallyDean Scudder of Sinauer Press, Michael Fisher of Harvard University Press, and Johannes Menzel ofElsevier Press.

In 2007, 885 books and 548 CDs/DVDs were shipped to 39 recipients (librarians and IBRO schooldirectors) Africa, South and Central America, India, Europe and Russia received Sinauer Press handledthe shipping and handling of its books for us. With the latest donations I have asked the recipients totrack their shipments and let me know what they receive and whether things are in good shape. Thishas worked well and the vast majority of the shipments have been received without a problem.

We very much wish to thank the Grass Foundation, whose funding has paid for the shipping costs forthe Books Programme. Despite increasing shipping costs, I hope that IBRO will be willing to continuefunding this initiative. Books (and, increasingly, CDs and DVDs) really are priceless resources for mostof the recipients.

John EwerChair, IBRO Book Fund

Students with books, IBRO Neuroscience School,Nairobi, Kenya, 2005

Sten Grillner winsKavli PrizeSten Grillner (Nobel Institute for Neurophysiology,Karolinska Institute, Sweden), President Elect ofthe Federation of Neuroscience Societies ofEurope (FENS) and Chair of IBRO's Membershipsand Partnerships Committee, is one of sevenscientists to receive the new Kavli Prize, apartnership between the Norwegian Academy ofScience and Letters, the Kavli Foundation and theNorwegian Ministry of Education and Research.The first recipients of the million-dollar Kavli prizesare pioneering scientists who have transformedhuman knowledge in the fields of nanoscience,neuroscience and astrophysics. Dr Grillner sharesthe neuroscience prize with Pasko Rakic (YaleUniversity School of Medicine, USA) and ThomasJessell (Columbia University, USA).

From Descartes De Homine (1662)

IBRO’s international collaborations open up in AfricaTeaching Course: Teach the teachers!Over the past two years IBRO has developed collaborative links with major neurological federations to promote clinical neurosciences in Africa. IBRO'sAfrica Regional Committee and the Society of Neuroscientists of Africa (SONA) have also renewed links with the Pan African Association of NeurologicalSciences (PAANS). The European Federation of Neurological Societies (EFNS), together with IBRO in partnership with UNESCO’s International Basic SciencesProgramme (IBSP) and the World Federation of Neurology (WFN), led the first Teaching Course (TC) at the Medical Faculty, Dakar University, Senegal, June26-28, 2008. The joint venture was chaired and organized by Amadou Gallo Diop (Senegal), M.M. Ndiaye (Senegal), P. Ndiaye (Senegal), J-M Vallat (France)and J. De Reuck (President EFNS, Belgium), along with several colleagues from EFNS, WFN, IBRO and University of Dakar. The TC had two themes,Peripheral Neuropathies and Dementia, with lectures on epidemiology, symptoms, treatment and management each morning and discussions each afternoon.An international faculty taught 150 neurology trainees and specialists, of whom 10 were IBRO alumni. On the last day in a highly interactive session, severalpractical issues and difficulties concerning neurology practice in the ‘bush’ were discussed, with representatives of WFN, PAANS and Pan Arab Union ofNeurological Societies (PAUNS) reassuring attendees of their availability to help African neurology practice, teaching and research. There are plans in hand

for the second TC in Anglophone sub-Saharan Africa in 2009. Grateful thanksare due to colleagues from all sides (IBRO, EFNS, WFN and the WorldNeurology Foundation for tools) for their encouragement and assistance. Thisfirst joint TC event with EFNS was made possible by the generouscontributions from UNESCO and IBRO.

Teaching Tools Workshop: Train the trainers!Identifying a crucial need for capacity building related to neuroscience inAfrican countries, and following immediately on from the 1st Teaching Course,the 1st Teaching Tools Workshop, Saly (Dakar), Senegal, June 30-July 4, 2008,represented a new initiative by the IAC-USNC (IBRO US/Canada RegionalCommittee in partnership with the Society for Neuroscience and the NationalAcademy of Sciences). The initiative was generated during the 2007 pan-African SONA (Society of Neuroscientists of Africa) meeting in Kinshasa (DRCongo) in the midst of a large group of neuroscientists from many Africancountries. Thanks to the efforts and organizational skills of Sharon Juliano(USA) and Amadou Gallo Diop (Senegal), the first workshop focusing onTeaching Tools took place in Saly (close to Dakar), Senegal, June 30-July 3, 2008.

Generously sponsored by the IAC-USNC, IBRO in partnership with UNESCO’sIBSP, SfN, the National Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, and the NationalInstitutes of Health Blueprint for Neuroscience Research, the workshopincluded a faculty of ‘trainers’ from African and non-African countries and junior

and senior ‘trainees’ from 18 African countries (including DR Congo, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon and others). The participants were largely contactedthrough the SONA and IBRO network created in the continent by the Africa Regional Committee of IBRO (ARC). Four senior observers from the TeachingCourse, Directors of Training Centres in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Lome (Togo), Cotonou (Benin) and Yaounde (Cameroon), attended the workshop to providefeedback and sharing of information through the Pan African Association of Neurological Sciences (PAANS). The workshop aimed to developstand-alone modules on two to three topics, with the objective to distribute teaching material (lectures, material for laboratory practicals) at different levelsof education (undergraduate and graduate students) in African institutions, and to discuss teaching/learning strategies. The topic of ‘how to teach’ was excellentlypresented by Janis Weeks (USA).

The workshop focused on the organization of sensorimotor systems, with emphasis also on diseases related to motor control, especially Parkinson’s Disease.Animated by vivid discussions with the trainees on problems of poor infrastructure in Africa (lack of video projectors, textbooks, and books in general), themotto of the workshop was ‘let’s find solutions’, to which the trainees adhered creatively and effectively. Small group discussions produced numeroussolutions to teaching problems endemic to Africa. A focused plan to follow the progress of the first trainee group was established and it is hoped that at thenext Teaching Tools Workshop some of the ‘trainees’ will come back as trainers.

IBRO/UNESCO initiative in Africa ... page 1

Teaching Tools Workshop, Saly, Dakar, Senegal

Two newsocieties joinIBRO GoverningCouncilIBRO welcomes two new members to itsGoverning Council: the Neuroscience Group ofEgypt and the Brain Research Society in Turkey.The former is represented by Dr Ahmed El-Goharyof the Suez Canal University with 70 membersand the latter represented by Prof. Filiz Onat with242 members. The two societies join the 81existing Affiliated Organizations on IBRO'sGoverning Council, which determines the policiesand programmes of IBRO and directs theirimplementation and conduct.

(l-r) Helmut Kettenmann (FENS President),Sten Grillner (President Elect), Richard Morris(Past President)

History ofNeuroscienceon the WebThe History of Neuroscience Series continues toproduce fascinating articles on famous (and notso famous) neuroscientists of the past andsubject-based contributions. Recent articles:John Newport Langley by Don Todman, JosephBabinski by François Clarac, Constantin vonEconomo by Lazaros Triarhou, Silas Weir Mitchellby Don Todman, The Evolution of Broca’s Area byDean Falk, The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus:Neuroscience in Ancient Egypt, by WaelMohamed Yousef. Other sections areDistinguished Scientists Interviewed, Histories ofIBRO's Affiliated Organizations, and Links toHistory Sites.

IBRO web site

www.ibro.info

News • Funding • Events

Former President of IBRO awardedNational Medal of Science

At a ceremony at the White House, Washington, DC, USA on July27, 2007, US President George W. Bush conferred the NationalMedal of Science upon Torsten N. Wiesel, Nobel Laureate 1981and President of IBRO (1999-2004) for “providing key insightsinto the operation of the visual system and for the discovery ofthe manner in which neural connections in the brain are madeduring the development and how they are maintained.”

Chinese scientistswin Neurosciencecover competitionThe winning image of IBRO’s Neuroscience cover competition for2007 formed part of an article by Z. Liang, W. Shen and T. Shou(latter author: School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, PR China).The article, ‘Enhancement of oblique effect in the cat’s primaryvisual cortex via orientation preference shifting induced byexcitatory feedback from higher-order cortical area 21a’, waspublished in Neuroscience, Vol. 145, Issue 1 (2007) 377-383.The authors received a prize of $500 from Elsevier, publisherof Neuroscience.

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NEUROSCIENCE NEWS FROM IBRO

IBRO’S journal NeuroscienceChief Editor Ole P. Ottersen reports: Since 2004, Neuroscience has published Special Issues on selecttopics, with a focus on new fields that have emerged as a result of conceptual or technologicaladvances. Several new Special Issues are now in preparation. All of these address timely topics throughauthoritative reviews from leaders in the respective fields.

Summer 2008 saw the publication of a Special Issue entitled From Cochlea to Cortex: Recent Advancesin Auditory Neuroscience. The issue examined each step in auditory processing and attempts tointegrate physiological and anatomical data so as to provide an updated overview of the auditorysystem. Future issues include Protein Trafficking, Targeting, and Interaction at the Glutamate Synapseand Inflammatory and Immunological Aspects of Common Neurological Diseases. In addition two issuesare scheduled for publication early 2009: New Insights in Cerebellar Function and Linking Genes toBrain Function. The Special Issues are expected to promote the visibility and impact of the journal andare likely to become reference volumes in their fields.

The journal is making every effort to maintain its fair and efficient review process and we are happy tonote that the author feedback surveys continue to show high satisfaction ratings. We are also glad tosee that the journal is enjoying a wide geographical distribution with regard to readership andcontributions. The journal is now trying to arrive at an even better balance when it comes to thegeographical breakdown of published articles. Our vision remains that Neuroscience should beperceived worldwide as an excellent choice for submission of high-quality papers within all disciplinesof brain research.

Alumni updateMore alumni symposia planned

After successful alumni symposia in 2007 at theIBRO Congress, Melbourne and the FAONSCongress, Hong Kong, we aim to organize moreof these symposia at scientific meetings. In thisway it is the young scientists themselves whodemonstrate the success of IBRO schools bothfor their educational training and promotion ofcareers. The idea of hosting special schools inNorth America for students from abroad emergedfrom IBRO alumni at a meeting of the LatinAmerican alumni in Montevideo in 2005, whichwas backed by alumni attending an IBRO School

in Cape Town at the same time. The challenge was met by the Canadian Association of Neuroscience(CAN) and the Canadian Institute of Neuroscience, Mental Health and Addiction (INMHA), both IBROmembers, who offered Canada as a host country for future schools. The resultant 2007 Toronto School,Fundamentals of Epilepsy, with 16 students from the ARC and LARC regions, was followed up in May2008 by the 2nd Canadian School of Neuroscience Fundamentals of Pain, with 14 students from theARC and LARC. Prior to the school, the trainees participated in the Annual Canadian NeuroscienceMeeting sponsored by CAN and INMHA and were able to mix and learn from some 1000 Canadianneuroscientists. CAN waived the registration fees and allowed them to present their own posters at themeeting.

A FENS/IBRO (PENS Programme of European Neuroscience Schools) alumni symposium was part ofthe FENS Forum in Geneva, July 2008. This was followed by an Alumni party. Another symposium tookplace at the Neurolatam (IBRO-LARC Congress of Neurosciences held in Brazil, September 2008),organized by Alejandro Munera (Colombia) and financed by the LARC Committee. Finally, we aresponsoring the participation of alumni from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Marine BiologicalLaboratory summer courses who were supported by the IBRO US/Canada Region (IAC-USNC) at theIBRO social at SfN in November 2008. While not a formal symposium, each participant will give a briefsummary of their research and how it relates to the course they attended. Music contributed from IBROalumni from around the world will add a lively touch to the IBRO social.

Visit the Alumni web site at http://alumni.ibro.info

Susan SaraChair, Alumni Programme

IBRO acknowledges its donorsSupport over the years from many national and international donors has helped further IBRO's missionto promote international collaboration, the interchange of scientific information, and the training ofyoung investigators in brain research throughout the world. The list below refers to IBRO's main donors– there are many others and IBRO is very grateful to all of them for their help and encouragement.

The Dargut and Milena Kemali Foundation (Italy) has established a joint venture with IBRO.The Fogarty International Center (USA) supports Neuroscience Schools in Africa.The Grass Foundation (USA) has since 2003 made significant contributions to courses organized byIBRO's Visiting Lecture Team Programme. The Foundation also supported the IAC-USNC/IBRO ARC12th Neuroscience School, Cape Town, South Africa (2006).INMHA, Institute of Neuroscience, Mental Health and Addiction (Canada), has supportedNeuroscience Schools in Africa and Latin America.ISN, International Society of Neurochemistry, has participated in African Schools initiatives.Novartis (Switzerland) supports Neuroscience Schools in Europe.The Rita Levi Montalcini Foundation (Italy) supports Levi Montalcini Fellowships for WomenNeuroscientists in Africa (established 2001).UNESCO supports IBRO initiatives in Africa and has established via the International Basic ScienceProgramme (IBSP) a partnership for capacity building in the African continent.

Fogarty/IBRO School in Neurosciences, Nairobi, Kenya, 2007

Programme of EuropeanNeuroscience Schools (PENS)PENS is a collaboration between FENS (Federation of European Neuroscience Societies) and IBROwhich seeks to train students and young investigators throughout Europe. In 2007-8, 13 schools wereheld in Europe (Portugal, France (3), Romania, Italy, Switzerland (2), Russia (2), Austria, Germany andthe UK).The PENS Alumni programme was created to follow the careers of students who have attendedPENS schools and to facilitate networking among them.

The FENS Forum, Geneva, Switzerland, July 12-16, 2008, proved an excellent venue to highlight thesuccess of the PENS schools and to encourage support for future endeavours. A FENS/IBRO-sup-ported, all-alumni symposium, Network Oscillations in Development, Sensory Processing and Memory,was held on July 15, with each participant having attended one or more FENS, IBRO or PENS school.There was a FENS/IBRO alumni social after the symposium with more than 300 people attending.

Visit the PENS web site at http://mars.glia.mdc-berlin.de/pens/

Susan SaraChair, PENS Committee

Alumni social, Fens Forum 2008, Geneva

Tables of Contents from the journal Neuroscience e-mailed to all IBRO members

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IBRONEWS 2008

IBRO’S REGIONAL ACTIVITIES, 2007-2008

Africa Regional Committee (ARC): Chair AbdulMohammed. A Neuroimmunology Course inIsmailia, Egypt, 18-21 Nov, 2007, organized byAhmed El-Gohary and Nilesh Patel was a jointventure between IBRO, Federation of AfricanImmunological Societies (FAIS), InternationalCourse of Clinical Immunology for InfectiousDiseases (ICCI) and the Faculty of Medicine, SuezCanal University (FOM/SCU). An IBRO-UNESCOPostgraduate Neuroscience School, Brains in theBushveld, took place in Lichtenburg EndangeredSpecies Breeding Reserve, South Africa, 8-16Dec, 2007, organized by Paul Manger and AmadiIhunwo, University of Wittwatersrand. After thesuccess of the Behavioural Neuroscienceworkshop in Kampala, Uganda, April 7-14, 2007,the ARC Chair visited Makerere University inMarch 2008 where he met alumni of the IBROschools in Uganda and the Makerere UniversityBrain Awareness Team (MUBAT). At the universityhe also explored the possibility of initiating anIBRO MSc programme in neuroscience forstudents from the Depts of Psychology, Zoology,Computer Sciences, Veterinary Anatomy and theSchool of Medicine. Members of Africanneuroscience societies organized activities duringBrain Awareness Week. The ARC joined theEuropean Federation of Neurological Societies(EFNS) and World Federation of Neurology (WFN)for a 1st Teaching Course, Dakar, Senegal, June

26-28, 2008, followed by a 1st Teaching ToolsWorkshop, Saly, Senegal, 30 June-3 July, hostedby Sharon Juliano, Gallo Diop and IBRO ARC andIAC-USNC members. ARC members, IBROalumni and IBRO African schools instructorsparticipated in a conference, Infectious Diseasesof the Nervous System: Pathogenesis andWorldwide Impact, 10-13 Sept 2008, Paris,France. ARC member Charles Newton was oneof the organizers of this landmark conference. TheIBRO/UNESCO/ISN African Neuroscience Schoolon Chronobiology and Sleep was organized Oct20-27, 2008 by Nouria Lakhdar-Ghazal andHoward Cooper in Ouarzazate-Zagora, Morocco.The IBRO Neuroimmunology School will takeplace in Ismailia, Egypt, Nov 24-Dec 4, organizedby A. Al Gohary and N. Patel. An advanced IBRO-UNESCO Behavioural Neuroscience School willbe organized by N. Patel and A. Mohammed,Nairobi, Kenya, Dec 13-20, 2008. We look forwardto continued proliferation of neuroscienceactivities in the African region and we are greatlyindebted to IBRO, ISN, UNESCO, WFN and EFNSfor the support they have given us in ourendeavours.

Asia Pacific Regional Committee (APRC):Chair Ying Shin Chan. 1. Associate Schools:Schools take around 36 students (MBBS, MScand 1st-year PhD students) and consist oflectures, group discussion and demonstration ofselected techniques. a) 10th Associate School,Hangzhou, China, Oct 25–29, 2007. Organizers:Jian-Hong Luo, Wei-Ping Zhang and Jing-HuaJin, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University,China. 34 students from China, India, Pakistanand Thailand. b) 11th Associate School,Sunway, Malaysia, Dec 3-7, 2007. Organizer:Ishwar Parhar, Monash University, SunwayCampus, Malaysia. 31 students from China, India,Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan and Thailand. c) 12th

Associate School, Shanghai, China, June 16–21, 2008. Co-sponsored by Int’l Society forNeurochemistry and Asia-Pacific Society forNeurochemistry. Organizer: Yi-Zhun Zhu, Schoolof Pharmacy, Fudan University, China. 27students from Bangladesh, China, India, Korea,Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand. 2. Schools:Two-week schools for 25 senior PhD and postdocstudents on key areas of neuroscience research.

10th IBRO School of Neuroscience, Kolkata,India, Sept 11–20, 2008. Organizer:Kochupurackal P. Mohanakumar, Indian Instituteof Chemical Biology. 3. Advanced Schools:Design of research projects using host institutes’state-of-the-art technology; intellectual exposureto senior postdoc and junior faculties; smallstudent-teacher ratio; preference given to IBROalumni of two-week schools. 3rd IBROAdvanced School of Neuroscience, Osaka,Japan, July 14–25, 2008. Co-sponsor GlobalCenter of Excellence Summer School, OsakaUniversity; organizer: Izumi Ohzawa, GraduateSchool of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University.Workshop on Computational Neuroscience:Dept of Computer Science, University of Delhi,India, Dec 24-31, 2007. Organized by Dept ofComputer Science, University of Delhi andNational Brain Research Centre, Manesar.Organizer: Nandini Chatterjee Singh, NBRC.RIKEN Summer Program 2007: Provided travelsupport for participants from the APRC region toattend program. Exchange Fellowship Scheme:Sponsors young neuroscientists to spend sixmonths in host laboratory in APRC region.Applicants must provide evidence that they willreturn to home country.

Central and Eastern Europe RegionalCommittee (CEERC): Chair RyszardPrzewlocki. In 2007 CEERC supported meetingsof national neuroscience societies in Poland andSlovenia as well as neuroscience conferences inRomania, Hungary and Russia (Sleep as aWindow to the World of Wakefulness, Moscow,Russia; Biophotonics in Neuroscience, N.Novgorod, Russia; National Gheorghe MarinescuSymposium, Bucharest, Romania; InvertebrateNeuroscience, Tihany, Hungary; Complex NeuralNetworks, Debrecen, Hungary). The meetings ofthe Polish Neuroscience Society (Krakow,September 2007) and the SlovenianNeuroscience Association (Ljubljana, October,2007) were international multidisciplinary eventswhere novel research in basic neurobiology,neurology, psychiatry and cognitive neurosciencewas presented. The Interregional Exchangeprogramme provided funds for six short researchvisits (Georgia-Ukraine, Ukraine-Russia,Belorussia-Poland, Russia-Hungary, Hungary-Russia, Poland-Ukraine). This has proved verysuccessful and helps young scientists to establishresearch collaboration and acquire new skills. Twoprominent scientists from IBRO’s VLTP, L.Kaczmarek and T. Freund, were invited to lectureat the Jubilee XX Physiological Congress (June2007) of the Russian I. P. Pavlov PhysiologicalSociety. E. Knapska (Warsaw) and O. Svarnik(Russia) were awarded travel grants to attend theIBRO Congress, Melbourne, July 2007. In 2008activities in Georgia, Slovakia, Croatia, Armenia,Russia and Serbia received support: lectures in

Tbilisi (IBRO CEERC VLTP, partial support); 6thInternational Symposium on Experimental andClinical Neurobiology Symposium/Workshop;Neuroimaging of Developmental Disorders,Dubrovnik; Neuroimaging and ComplementaryTechniques, Beograd, Serbia; Animal Issues inScientific Research Workshop, Yerevan, Armenia;Mechanisms of Neural and NeuroendocrineRegulations, Moscow, Russia. Travel grants wereawarded to 28 young scientists from Armenia,Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia,Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia,Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine to attend the FENSForum 2008, Geneva. The CEERC also supportedthe Alumni Symposium at FENS 2008.

Latin America Regional Committee (LARC):Chair Marta Hallak. Schools: The LARC budgetfor schools included support from IBRO-LARCand INMHA (Canada). LARC activities were co-sponsored and partially financed by localinstitutions and international scientificorganizations. IBRO Advanced School ofNeuroscience in Neuroethology (ISBRA), Riode Janeiro, Brazil, August 25-Sept 11, 2008: Theschool focused on stem cells, developmentalneuroscience and plasticity, and cognitiveneuroscience. Students also attended the I IBRO-LARC Congress of Neurosciences in LatinAmerica, Caribbean and Iberian Peninsula(Neurolatam), Buzios, Rio de Janeiro, Sept 1-4,2008. 5th Latin American IBRO-LARC AnnualSchool of Neurosciences, Córdoba y Rosario,Argentina, 1-15 Dec. 2008: Protein Folding andAggregation in Neurons: from Development toDisease. Experts in genetic, molecular andcellular biology, structural biology, biochemistry,and biophysics from American and Europeancountries will teach the molecular mechanisms ofneurodegenerative disorders. Up-to-datescientific information and technologies will bepresented and discussed in the context of proteinmisfolding and neuronal dysfunction symptoms.Regional courses, workshops & symposia: 20regional courses or symposia were supported in2008. Intra-regional exchange awards: 82applicants were chosen to attend mainly theNeurolatam Congress in the 2008 programme.Neurolatam Congress: LARC supported theNeurolatam Congress in Brazil, co-sponsored bythe neuroscience societies of Brazil, Argentina,Chile and Uruguay and with the participation ofsocieties from Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru,Portugal, Spain and Mexico. EmergentNeuroscience Groups: We hope to support thisactivity which focuses on Latin American andCaribbean countries.

US/Canada Regional Committee (IAC-USNC):Chair Edward G. Jones. The Society forNeuroscience (SfN), the National Academy ofSciences, the Canadian Association forNeuroscience (CAN) and the Canadian Institute ofNeuroscience, Mental Health and Addiction(INMHA) of the Canadian Institutes of HealthResearch (CIHR) worked with the IAC-USNC on anumber of activities to further IBRO’s objectives.Courses and workshops in other regions: The1st Teaching Tools Workshop in Neuroscience,Saly (Dakar), Senegal, June 30-July 3, 2008 wasorganized by the IAC-USNC and SONA, withfinancial support provided by the NIH Blueprintfor Neuroscience Research, SfN, the NationalParkinson Foundation and IBRO, in theframework of an IBRO-UNESCO project in Africa(report on p. 4 ). INMHA continues to support twoIBRO schools each year in Africa and SouthAmerica, including Intrinsic Properties of theNeurons and Changes Induced by Stress,Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, Nov 25-Dec 9, 2007, andBrains in the Bushveld, University ofWittwatersrand (SA), Dec 8-16, 2007. As in pastyears, the Grass Foundation and SfN supportedthe Ricardo Miledi Program. A course NeuralDifferentiation during Embryonic Developmentwas held at Universidad Nacional Autónoma deMéxico in Juriquilla, Queretaro, Feb 4-22, 2008,

when 15 students from seven Latin American andCaribbean countries were exposed to topics onneuronal differentiation and stem cell biology, hadhands-on training on methodologies and receivedtravel stipends to attend the 2008 SfN annualmeeting. IBRO North American Schools: Thecommittee worked with IBRO’s Board of Schoolsand the Marine Biological Laboratory (WoodsHole, MA) and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory(Cold Spring Harbor, NY) to identify highlyqualified research trainees to participate insummer neuroscience courses at MBL andCSHL. Seven students from South America, India,Africa and Eastern Europe were funded to attend.The 2nd Canadian IBRO School Fundamentals ofPain, Montreal, May 2008, brought students fromAfrica and Latin America to Canada (list ofsponsors p. 7). Travel Fellowships: In addition tothe CSHL, MBL and Ricardo Miledi travelfellowships, SfN supported 30 students fromresource-restricted countries to present theirresearch at SfN 2008, Washington, DC. Financialsupport for the committee’s activities is providedby the National Institutes of Health NeuroscienceBlueprint and SfN, as well as IBRO and specificactivity supporters.

Western Europe Regional Committee (WERC):Chair Monica Di Luca. The committee continuedto maintain its role to support youngneuroscientists and strengthen educationalprogrammes within Western European countries.It funded students from European and non-European regions to participate at meetings,including the two conferences Infectious Diseasesof the Nervous System: Pathogenesis andWorldwide Impact, Pasteur Institute, Paris, Sept10-13-2008, and RNA Metabolism andAssociated Pathologies, Rome, May 31-June 5,2008. The Paris conference covered a variety ofpathogens that cause neurological diseases suchas cerebral malaria, sleeping sickness, viralencephalitis, poliomyelitis, bacterial meningitis,HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders in an

attempt to focus the scientific community’sattention on the issue and to foster collaborationsto accelerate investigations of diseasepathogenesis and the use of new technologies fordevelopment of diagnostic tools and drugdiscovery. The Rome conference focused on RNAmetabolism and brain pathologies such as mentalretardation and neurodegeneration. To continue afruitful tradition, we supported the Sevilla Schoolin Neuroscience, April-June 2008, organized byJosé-M. Delgado-García. This is a Europeanprogramme in the University Master Programmeof the Universidad Pablo de Olavide, which alsowelcomes Latin American students, thus creatinga scenario of exchanges between European andnon- European students. This year we supported12 Latin American students to attend the school.The committee supported young neuroscientiststo attend the FENS Forum 2008, Geneva, givingthem the chance to share their research results ata large discussion forum. WERC continued itscollaboration with the CEERC and FENS on thePENS Committee (Programme for EuropeanNeuroscience Schools).

IBRO alumni with Raj Kalaria (l), Marina Bentivoglio(centre), Alfred Njamnshi (4th l), Gallo Diop (5th l),Teaching Course, Dakar

Sevilla School, Spain

10th Associate School, Hangzhou, China

EDUCATION & TRAINING 2007-2008

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Highlights from the Neuroscience SchoolsThe Neuroscience Schools are created by IBRO and its Regional Committees and through partnerships with othernational and international organizations.

IBRO/UNESCO-ICSU/INMHA Neuroscience School: Brains in the Bushveld: Lichtenburg-Johannesburg, South Africa, Dec 8-16, 2007. Paul Manger and Amadi Ihunwo (School of AnatomicalScience, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Withwatersrand) organized the school attendedby 24 students from all over Africa and 13 instructors from Africa, Europe and Australia. Lectures (in abush setting) focused on the uniqueness of the Africanfauna and how it may contribute to global knowledge.There was a day trip to the Sterkfontein Caves in the"Cradle of Humankind" to explore the fossil record ofhuman evolution. The school consisted of morning lecturesdiscussing African fauna, evolution of the brain, and theselection of appropriate animal models for theinvestigation of neural aspects of global interest. Afternoonpracticals provided hands-on experience in the captureand handling of small and large mammals, implantation ofrecording and monitoring devices, and the acquisition ofbrains from large and small mammals, all under fieldconditions. Thanks are due to school sponsors UNESCO/ICSU, ISN (International Society ofNeurochemistry), INMHA (Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction of Canada), Dept of

Science and Technology South Africa, National Zoological Gardens of South Africa, University of theWitwatersrand, South Africa, and ANYMAZE for providing a free version of their video tracking programfor the practicals.

IBRO/INMHA Advanced School of Neuroscience: Neuroethology, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nov 12–29, 2007. The course was organized by Daniel Tomsic and Lidia Szczupak (University of Buenos Aires)and members of the CONICET. The 20 students included graduate students from Argentina, Brazil,Chile, Colombia, Cuba and Uruguay. The aim was to provide a comprehensive view for studying theneurobiology of behaviour. The teachers presented their work against the background of naturalbehaviours and behaviours recorded in natural environments. Lectures focused on what can be learnedin different animals such as ants, bats, birds, crabs, drosophila, electric fish, honey bees, leeches,manduca and frogs.

IBRO/INMHA School of Neuroscience: Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, Nov 25-Dec 8, 2007, organizers ElaineDel Bel and Janete A. Anselmo-Franci. The 30 students from Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Argentinaand Uruguay had the opportunity to learn from instructors from Brazil, Canada, England, Germany,Hungary, Mexico, Scotland and USA. Topics included synapses, synthesis, metabolism, liberationof neurotransmitters, and neural plasticity focusing on new work on long-term potentiation andneurogenesis. Selected topics included analysis of behaviour in animals from flies to vertebrates andneurodegenerative diseases.

IBRO 2nd Canadian School of Neuroscience:Fundamentals of Pain, Montreal, May 25–June4, 2008. Following the model of last year’s schoolin Toronto, this school brought 14 students fromAfrica and Latin America to Canada and includedgraduate students, clinical trainees and junior stafffrom Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Brazil,Colombia and Venezuela. Most of the faculty weremembers of well-known centres of pain researchin Canada: McGill University Centre for Researchon Pain, University of Toronto Centre for the Studyof Pain, and AstraZeneca R&D Montreal. Thecourse covered selected topics in pain with anemphasis on interactive sessions with plenty of opportunity for student interaction and discussionincluding the presentation and discussion of their research. As is customary with IBRO schools, on thelast day the students elected Class President, actually two co-presidents (Ricardo Cardenas fromVenezuela and Gilbert Mbeo from Kenya), and Class Secretary (Nadia Zouhairi from Morocco). The schoolwas sponsored by IBRO, Canadian Association of Neuroscience (CAN), CIHR Institute of Neuroscience,Mental Health and Addiction (INMHA), CIHR Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health,CIHR Institute of Cancer Research, Society for Neuroscience (SFN), Fond de la Recherche en Santéde Québec (FRSQ), McGill University Centre for Research on Pain, Montreal Neurological Institute,University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain, AstraZeneca R&D Montreal, Pfizer Canada.

Monitoring blesbok, Lichtenburg

Neuroethology School, Buenos Aires

Reports from the Visiting Lecture Team

The Visiting Lecture Team Programme (VLTP) runs lecturecourses for young neuroscience students in less well-funded countries. They are given by a team of internationalneuroscientists and are organized in collaboration withlocal and regional neuroscience associations. Thanks aredue to the Grass Foundation, major partner in funding VLTPcourses over the past six years.

Institute of Neuroscience, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China, June 20-28, 2007. TheVLTP's primary role was to introduce the students to fundamental areas of neuroscience. Localorganizers: Yun-Qing Li (Dept of Anatomy & K.K. Leung Brain Research Center, FMMU), Shengxi Wu(FMMU) and Tao Chen (FMMU); VLTP organizer U.J. McMahan (USA). The lecturers were PhilippeAscher (France), U.J. McMahan (USA), Arne Lekven (USA), John Nicholls (Italy), Shlomo Rotshenker(Israel) and Xiong-Li Yang (China). They gave a total of 35 lectures covering synaptic transmission andsensory transduction; the biophysics of channels; the structural, functional organization of the vertebratenervous system; nervous system development from blastocyst to adult; and cellular and molecularmechanisms in degeneration and regeneration.The lecturers led a one-hour discussion oninternational funding opportunities for trainingand research in neuroscience.

University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria,July 18-26, 2007. The course was devised byTony Ebeigbe, a physiologist of distinctioncommitted to improving the teaching ofneurobiology in Nigeria, and U.J. McMahan.About 57 students attended: medical students,PhD students, lecturers, physiotherapists andsenior university teachers from many universities throughout Nigeria. The lecturers were Alasdair Gibb(UK), John Nicholls (Italy), Noreen Reist (USA) and David Weisblat (USA). Topics covered cellular andmolecular properties of channels, synaptic transmission, transmitter release, development of thenervous system, invertebrate neuroscience, synapse formation, visual system, sensory deprivation,integrative mechanisms, respiratory rhythmicity, spinal cord injury. At a dedicated session on the lastday, an open forum was held to answer questions about funding, the choice of advisor, and the relativeadvantages and disadvantages of training in the USA and Europe. A sign of the success of the 2000Benin VLTP course was that Prof. Ebeigbe and his colleagues had set up an innovative BSc course,extremely popular with undergraduate students wishing to study neurobiology.

Federal University of the Amazon, Manaus, Brazil, September 19-26, 2007.In total, 82 students attended this course, coming from Manaus itself and other universities in Brazil,Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Portugal and Germany. Their scientific backgroundsincluded molecular biology, biotechnology, neurobiology, medicine, physiotherapy, engineering andcomputer science, at pre-doctoral, post-doctoral and professorial levels. Local organizers wereSpartaco Astolfi (Brazil) and Adriana Malheiro (Brazil); VLTP organizers were Elaine Del Bel (Brazil) andJohn Nicholls (Italy). VLTP lecturers were Elaine Del Bel, John Nicholls, Fidel Ramon (Mexico), HenrietteRaventos (Costa Rica), Walter Stuehmer (Germany) and Wamberto Varanda (Brazil). Topics includedbasic mechanisms of signaling and synaptic transmission at cellular, molecular and systemic levels;visual system from retina to perception; genetic analysis of neurological disorders; analysis of behaviourin animals from flies to vertebrates; and neurodegenerative diseases.

Dept. of Pharmaceutical Science, University of Nagpur, India, February 6-13, 2008. K.S. Krishnanand N.K. Subhedar (Dept. of Pharmaceutical Science, University of Nagpur) organized an advancedVLTP course in neurobiology for 54 university students from all over India. The VLTP team were JohnNicholls (Italy), David Weisblat (USA), Fidel Ramon (Mexico) and Elaine Del Bel (Brazil). Immediatelybefore the course, the students had carried out two weeks of lab exercises (taught by teachers fromIndia and abroad), studying structure of the nervous system by the most advanced moleculartechniques as well as classical staining. Lecture topics included cellular and molecular mechanisms ofsynaptic transmission, nitric oxide as a transmitter, invertebrate and vertebrate development, cellularmechanisms underlying behaviour in invertebrates, mammalian and invertebrate visual systems,hippocampus and long-term potentiation, regeneration of the nervous system after injury and sleep. Onthe last day there was a round-table discussion for the students when they could ask instructors aboutopportunities for study and research abroad, the choice of a lab, funding and advisors.

Beritashvili Institute of Physiology, Tbilisi, Georgia, April 8-16, 2008. The course was attended by50 PhD, Masters and undergraduate students from Javakishvili and Chavchavadze State Universitiesof Tbilisi, Tbilisi State Medical University, Rustaveli University of Batumi. Several young scientists fromthe Beritashvili Institute of Physiology also attended and nine students came from Armenia andAzerbaijan. The organizers were Merab Tsagareli (Georgia) and Alasdair Gibb UK) with VLTP lecturersAlasdair Gibb, Anna Dunaevsky (USA), Nevin Lambert (USA), and Shlomo Rotshenker (Israel). Thelectures covered the structural and functional organization synaptic transmission, sensory transductionand cell signalling; the structure, formation and mechanisms of nervous system development,degeneration and regeneration; properties and functions of receptors, ion channels and transporters;synaptic plasticity, and the molecular basis of diseases of the nervous system such as Parkinsonismand multiple sclerosis. Merab Tsagareli gave a lecture on the history of Georgian neuroscience,illustrating how the work of the classical physiologist Ivane Beritashvili led to modern neuroscience inGeorgia, a fitting end to the course as Beritashvili was one of the founding members of IBRO.

Subject for behavioural studies, Manaus

2nd Canadian School of Neuroscience

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InternationalBrain ResearchOrganizationEXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

PresidentCarlos Belmonte (Spain)Secretary-GeneralMarina Bentivoglio (Italy)TreasurerSteve Redman (Australia)

Chairs of Regional CommitteesAbdul Mohammed (Africa)Ying Shing Chan (Asia/Pacific)Ryszard Przewlocki (Poland)Marta Hallak (Latin America) Edward G. Jones (US/Canada)Monica Di Luca (Western Europe)

IBRO Secretariat

255 Rue Saint-Honoré75001 Paris, FrancePhone:+33-1-46-47-92-92Fax: +33-1-46-47-42-50Executive DirectorStephanie de La [email protected] of ProgrammesRobynn Rockstad-Rex [email protected] [email protected]

IBRO Web Site: www.ibro.info

Webmaster & Head ofInformation TechnologyAnte [email protected] EditorAndrée [email protected]

'IBRO News'

Editor in ChiefAndree [email protected]

IBRONEWS 2008

ABOUT IBRO

New Chair forIBRO CEERCRyszard Przewlocki, Head of the MolecularNeuropharmacology Dept., Institute ofPharmacology, Polish Academy of Sciences,Krakow, Poland, is the new Chair for the IBROCentral & Eastern Europe Regional Committee(CEERC). Prof. Przewlocki holds a professorshipat the Jagiellonian University, Krakow. He hasserved as President of the Polish NeuroscienceSociety and is a member of the Polish Academyof Sciences and Art and the European DANAAlliance for Brain (EDAB). He works on the role ofopioid peptides in the physiology andpharmacology of the CNS. More recently, hisresearch has concentrated on the molecular andcellular mechanisms of opioid action with specialemphasis on gene expression and geneticmechanisms of opioid addiction.The CEERC willfollow the general IBRO mission, says Prof.Przewlocki, to promote the advancement ofneuroscience and facilitate brain research withinthe region and to encourage exchange andcollaboration among neuroscientists fromdifferent countries, as well as supporting theeducation and training of young scientists. TheCEERC will promote collaboration throughexchange programmes and partnership networks.The CEERC is involved in PENS, which providesgreat opportunities and facilities to educate andtrain young neuroscientists.

IBRO launchesWomen in WorldNeuroscienceProgrammeThe mission of IBRO's Women in WorldNeuroscience Programme is to improve careerdevelopment, mentoring and networkingopportunities for women in neuroscience aroundthe world, with special attention to women indisadvantaged regions. The Women in WorldNeuroscience Committee is chaired by Judy Illes,Canada Research Chair in Neuroethics, NationalCore for Neuroethics, University of BritishColumbia, Canada. The participation of women inscience is of importance everywhere but, theCommittee says, it assumes special significancein parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America, EasternEurope where they face serious challengingconditions imposed by tradition, culture, religionor politics.

The Committee's vision is the creation andpromotion of barrier-free opportunities for careeradvancement for women in all academic andprofessional sectors of neuroscience. One of itsfirst steps will be to contact the Chairs of IBRO'sRegional Committees with the aim of formingregional liaisons. Another will be to establishworking groups in the following initial priorityareas: funding and partnership; strategies foroutreach and inreach, with a special focus ondeveloping countries; awards and achievements;needs assessment. The Committee had its firstmeeting at the FENS Forum 2008.

IBRO’s priorities guided by current needs,says Secretary-GeneralHalfway through my mandate as Secretary-General, I realize that time is running fast, and there is muchto do. I am beginning to realize that the global village of neuroscience is actually very diverse, and thatthere are many local realities to understand, and many needs to meet. But I also realize how active andeffective the extended IBRO family is and that it is not so difficult to speak a common language.Enthusiasm, mutual interests, kinship are big common denominators that help overcome large cultural,social and political diversities. They can also be very effective in bridging gaps in resources. I have hadthe opportunity to confirm that neuroscientists are generous and that brain research is extremelyattractive for junior investigators and of ever growing interest for mid-career and senior investigators.As a guiding organization for young neuroscientists and young organizations in different countries of theworld, we are exploring new directions for partnerships in an attempt to extend our efforts to newhorizons, both geographically and in terms of scientific interest in the neurosciences. I admire the agileand flexible structure of IBRO, and the fact that IBRO priorities are not only guided by a general strategybut also by current global needs. Yet we need to learn to be more proactive and foresee the directionsour neuroscientific path may take and how, as a group, we can impact the societies we live in, whileremaining a fast-reacting group.

Marina Bentivoglio and Carlos Belmonte withChair Judy Illes (4th r) and some of the Women inWorld Neuroscience Committee at FENS Forum2008, Geneva

IBRO-EduThe role of the web in education is well recognized; already most educational institutions in the worlduse the web as the main if not exclusive medium to deliver educational material to their students. In spiteof several large collections of web-based neuroscience resources, none of these sites provides anevaluation of material. By establishing IBRO-Edu, IBRO hopes to provide quality resources forneuroscience education (and research) to its members under the supervision of an Editorial Board.The short-term goal of the project is to identify, evaluate and provide organized access to educationalmaterials in neuroscience already available on the web, including the material developed for IBROeducational programmes (IBRO Schools, VLTP and Brain Campaign). In a later phase, IBRO- Edu willadd to this resource by soliciting and creating new material, possibly an on-line textbook ofneuroscience.

Visit IBRO-Edu at http://www.ibroedu.org

NIH Blueprint to fundIAC-USNC/IBROThe IAC-USNC/IBRO, also known as the IBROUS/Canada Regional Committee, will besupported from 2007 to 2012 by the NIHBlueprint for Neuroscience Research. NIHBlueprint is a cooperative effort among the 16NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices (USA) thatsupport neuroscience research:http://neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov

New memberselected forCEERC and WERC The results of the election of new members ofIBRO’s Central and Eastern Europe RegionalCommittee and Western Europe RegionalCommittee are:CEERC: Maja Bresjanac (Slovenia) (re-elected),Konstantin Anokhin (Russia). Arpad Parduz(Hungary) (re-elected), Milos Judas (Croatia)WERC: Beat Gähwiler (Switzerland), Juan Lerma(Spain), Dominique Muller (Switzerland), KristerKristensson (Sweden)The term of membership of IBRO’s RegionalCommittees is four years, with half themembership replaced every two years.Members may be re-elected once.