Online conference “Shedding light on developing cortical circuits”, first scientific event of “Cups & Cakes” series of CIVIS

First event of the online workshops „Cups & Cakes” organized jointly by Aix-Marseille  University and CIVIS – A European Civic University, will take place on Monday, May 10th, 2021, from 10h 00 to 11h 00 (CEST).

The speaker of conference entitled “Shedding light on developing cortical circuits” is PhD. Rosa Cossart, Director of the Institute of Mediterranean Neurobiology (INMED), affiliated to INSERM and Aix-Marseille University, a pioneering Institute in the field of Systems Developmental Neuroscience.

More details of the workshop are available here.

We welcome everyone who is interested in attending this free event to register through this link (password @lUBMgpidi).

Advances in molecular genetics and imaging have allowed for the dissection of neuronal connectivity with unprecedented detail while in vivo recordings are providing much-needed clues as to how sensory, motor and cognitive function is encoded in neuronal firing. However, bridging the gap between the cellular and behavioral levels ultimately requires an understanding of the functional organization of the underlying neuronal circuits. In this talk, I will present experimental evidence for the existence of hub neurons, cells critically contributing to the maturation of functional cortical circuits during brain development.

Short Biography of PhD. Rosa Cossart

After graduating in Mathematics and Physics from the Ecole Centrale Paris, PhD. Rosa Cossart studied the functional rewiring of GABAergic circuits in epilepsy during her PhD with Drs. Bernard and Ben-Ari. As a postdoctoral fellow with Pr. Yuste at Columbia University, she pioneered the use of calcium imaging to study cortical circuit function. Her lab made seminal contributions to the understanding of how development scaffolds hippocampal circuits.  They discovered “hub cells” and more recently “assemblies” forming the functional building blocks of hippocampal function.

For comments or more details, please contact the responsible AMU, at Julie.hyzewicz@univ-amu.fr.

“CIVIS has been established as a University that reaches from the local level to the international dimension, focused on responding to local needs, contributing to regional development strategies and addressing global challenges. The development of Research and Innovation (R&I), as an integral component of its educational mission, has been part of the CIVIS mission from the very beginning.

It is in this perspective that RIS4CIVIS has been elaborated and now operates. The overall objective is to produce an integrated, long-term R&I Strategy that, will over time enable the constituent members of the CIVIS European University to seamlessly integrate their know-how, expertise and resources in the service of Research and Innovation that effectively addresses current and future societal challenges, at local, regional and international level.

As part of the activities developed to reach this objective, the Cups&Cakes meetings aim to create a discussion forum for researchers to connect and get an overview of what is happening in other partner universities on a specific topic. In the longer term, these exchanges also aim to foster exchanges and develop potential collaborations within the CIVIS Alliance.

These Cups&Cakes will be scheduled for one hour and will consist of two phases:

– A 40-minutes presentation of current research work chosen by the speaker (including a 5-minute introduction of general expertise and work in progress within the university on the topic of interest).

– Open discussion of about 20 minutes.

These meetings will take place on Mondays every two weeks from 10h00 to 11h00. Each partner University, in turns, will have the opportunity to present to the CIVIS Community a subject of their research. The first opportunity for the ULB will be on Monday 14 June.”