IBRO News 2005

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

© IBRO VOLUME 33 2005

International Brain Research Organizationwww.ibro.info

MELBOURNE 2007!7th IBRO WORLD CONGRESS OF NEUROSCIENCE

IBRO’s 7th WorldCongress, to be heldin Melbourne,Australia, 12-17 July2007, promises tooffer an exciting programme of plenarylectures, symposia,workshops, posterpresentations andsatellite meetings (inMelbourne and otherAustralian cities),

covering all aspects of international neuroscience.The President of the Congress is George Paxinos,the Secretary-General Frederick Mendelsohn.

POSTER DEADLINE DECEMBER 2006!Submissions in all areas of neuroscience are welcome. Material aimed at understanding betterthe workings of the brain and nervous system inhealth and disease or bringing the results of cellular/molecular and animal studies closer tohuman brain function is encouraged. Please returnall proposals by email or fax to: Prof. Elspeth M.McLachlan, Co-Director, Spinal Injuries ResearchCentre, Prince of Wales Medical ResearchInstitute, Gate 1 Barker Street Randwick, NSW2031,Australia (Phone: 61 2 9399 1031; fax: 61 29399 1034; email: [email protected]) A preliminary programme for the Congress willbe in place before the end of this year.

Melbourne, home to almost four million people,is one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitanof cities, set on the beautiful south-eastern coastof the Australian continent. Melbourne wasrecently voted the World’s Most Liveable City bythe Economic Intelligence Unit in London, basedon its excellent climate, geographical environment,affordable accommodation and restaurants, lowcrime rate, etc.

Most Congress delegates will be accommodatedwithin walking distance of the centrally locatedconvention center, as there are over 12,000accommodation rooms in the central businessdistrict, ranging from 5 star hotels to budget/student accommodation.Attendees at the conference will not only be able to enjoy a widerange of local attractions, but also to take theopportunity to enjoy pre/post touring to spectacular Australian locations such as the GreatOcean Road (Victoria), Sydney (New SouthWales), the Great Barrier Reef, DaintreeRainforest and the Gold Coast (Queensland) aswell as Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) and Kakadu NationalPark (Northern Territory).

The Local Organizing Committee (SecretaryAndrew Lawrence; [email protected]) can be contactedfor details about the meeting. Congress web sitewww.ibro2007.org

NEWS FROM IBRO’S REGIONS p. 6

IBRO’S JOURNALNEUROSCIENCESUBMISSIONS

UP 50%!

Our journal Neuroscience madesignificant strides in 2004: there were 1500new submissions - 50% up on 2003 and thehighest number in its nearly 30-year history.

The time to first decision is now 30 daysfrom submission and, post-acceptance,

publication time for the author-correctedarticle on-line is now only seven weeks.

New Section Editors joined the journal in2004-5: Greg Quirk (Puerto Rico),

Menahem Segal (Israel), Richard Weinberg(USA), Miles Herkenham (USA) and AslaPitkanen (Finland) for, respectively, the

Behavioural Neuroscience, CellularNeuroscience, Sensory Systems, and

Systems Neuroscience sections.

Ole Petter Ottersen (Norway) assumes theChief Editorship of the journal from January

2006 for a four-year term, and SteveLisberger (USA) will take up the position of

Associate Editor at the same time.David Amaral (USA) retires as Chief Editorafter four years during which time he, with

Ole Petter Ottersen, oversaw theimplementation and expansion of a Board

of Section Editors, upgrading of the journal'sproduction system to ensure field-leading

photomicrograph reproduction and a moremodern, cleaner article format and cover

design. He also set in motion fullweb-submission and peer-review andcentralization of the journal's reviewprocess administration in San Diego.

Author feedback via formalquestionnaire indicates widespread

satisfaction with these changes. Plans forlate 2005/early 2006 include expansion ofthe Editorial Advisory Board to ensure thejournal attracts papers from all areas of theneurosciences and more review and special

issue commissioning and publication.

PENS SETS THE PACEFOR EUROPEANNEUROSCIENCE!

FENS/IBRO LaunchEuropean Schools Programme

The Federation of European NeuroscienceSocieties (FENS) and IBRO this year launchedan exciting joint venture to train young scientiststhroughout Europe. It is entitled PENS(Programme of European Neuroscience Schools).PENS brings together FENS’ and IBRO’seducational activities. PENS will provide fundsto support high-quality schools and courseson a wide range of important topics inthe neurosciences.

As well as increasing the quality of neuroscienceeducation in Europe, the programme will assistthe development of neuroscience outside Europeby providing opportunities in Europe for thetraining of promising students who intend toreturn to their home countries.

As a rule, each PENS school will last around twoweeks and will enrol some 20 promising studentsto work intensively with distinguishedteacher-scientists from within and outside Europe.The curriculum will focus on specialized issues inneuroscience but will usually change from year toyear.Where the needs and infrastructure justify it,a successful school may be repeated more thanonce in the same location or move elsewhere.The creation of PENS derives largely from theneed to build greater strength in the brainsciences.There is a chronic under-funding of basicneuroscience in Europe, which results in theprogressive loss of well-trained scientists largelyto North-America. Even young scientists fromEastern Europe now ‘jump over’ Western Europeto end up in the USA.

FENS and IBRO – already aided by support frompartner organizations – provide the financialbacking for the programme. Corporations andacademic and philanthropic institutions interestedin brain research are invited to help PENS expandthe school system and set the pace for Europeanneuroscience.Visit the Pens web site:http://mars.glia.mdc-berlin.de/pens/

NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR IBROStephanie de La Rochefoucauld, formerly Assistant Executive Directorat the IBRO Secretariat in Paris, France became IBRO’s ExecutiveDirector in January 2005. She has worked at the Secretariat for thepast four years and took over the position from Olga Popoff whoretired at the end of 2004.

Stephanie de La Rochefoucauld

Olga Popoff retires from IBRO … p. 2

IN THIS ISSUEBrain Campaign

Science Advisory Programme

Funding

Research Fellows

Alumni

Reports from the Regions

The VLTP

Neuroscience Schools

Brazilian Neuroscientist WinsNeuroscience Cover Competition p. 3

This figure, taken from the journal’s most recentAuthor Feedback report, and derived fromhundreds of author questionnaire responses,illustrates how satisfaction with the refereeingstandard for Neuroscience has improved over thelast two years and how the journal is now rated asone of the best in the field for its review process.

IBRO THE ORGANIZATIONBEHIND THE SCENES

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INTERNATIONALBRAIN RESEARCHORGANIZATIONEXECUTIVE COMMITTEEPresidentAlbert Aguayo (Canada)Secretary-General Jennifer Lund (USA)Treasurer:Steve Redman (Australia)

Chairs of Regional Committees R. N. Kalaria (Africa)Y. S. Chan (Asian/Pacific)L. Kaczmarek (Central and Eastern Europe)M. Hallak (Latin America) B. S. McEwen (US/Canada)G. Di Chiara (Western Europe)

IBRO SECRETARIATExecutive DirectorStephanie de La [email protected] of ProgrammesStephanie [email protected] Rue Saint-Honoré75001 Paris, FrancePhone:+33-1-46-47-92-92Fax: +33-1-46-47-42-50

IBRO web site: www.ibro.infoWebmaster & Head of Information TechnologyAnte PadjenSenior EditorAndrée Blakemore

'IBRO News'Editor in ChiefAndree [email protected]

IBRO'S COMMITTEES AND CHAIRS OLGA POPOFFRETIRES AFTER 21YEARS WITH IBRO

In 1983 David Ottoson, of the KarolinskaInstitute in Stockholm, was elected

Secretary-General of IBRO. He persuadedhis personal assistant at the Institute, Olga

Popoff, to establish and run the IBROSecretariat in Paris where she was later

appointed Executive Director. DavidOttoson's term as Secretary-General

ended in 1997. Olga directed the affairs ofthe Secretariat until the end of 2004.

Olga will be remembered in her positionat the IBRO Secretariat for her manage-

ment abilities, her compulsive attention todetail, her loyalty. IBRO President AlbertAguayo remembers her:“Olga has served

IBRO most loyally for longer than anyone Iknow. I certainly owe her a lot for goodadvice and help. She will be missed by

many and very specially by the members ofIBRO from all corners of the world that

knew and trusted her. I join the rest of mycolleagues in wishing Olga all the best in

this new phase in her life.”

Torsten Wiesel (IBRO President 1999-2004)and Olga Popoff in Paris September 2004

IBRO ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB

Over the last 15 years the World Wide Web has become a major medium of communication.The Web is a particularly attractive environment for an organization such as IBRO, with itsworldwide membership of over 50,000, its multitude of programmes and a wide array of activities.IBRO Web Gateway is a true mirror of IBRO’s dynamic existence.A glance at the hubs ofIBRO Gateway - News,Announcements, Events, Funding, Education, Science Issues and others -provides a quick insight into what is happening at IBRO.

Publishing is not the only role of IBRO Gateway. For the past two years it has been undergoing amajor transformation so as to provide an interactive support tool for a variety of IBROprogrammes. From this year the IBRO Fellowships and Travel Grants Programme are runcompletely via the web: students submit applications over on-line forms; committee membersreview them on-line - all with substantial savings in time and effort.The same model is nowextended to IBRO’s Neuroscience Schools and will soon apply to the other programmes.

Since December 2004, IBRO members can register on-line, obtain an account with password andaccess protected sections of the site.They can join different Forums of interest, protected fromthe menace of spam, viruses, etc. Several IBRO programmes such as the Brain Campaign, IBROAlumni and IBRO-Edu are considered to be better served with a semi-detached site(www.braincampaign.org; http://alumni.ibro.info; www.ibroedu.org). Members areinvited to use Feedback Form to seek help, post questions, comments or suggestions.

Ante L. PadjenIBRO Webmaster & Head of Information Technology

AlumniSigismund [email protected]

Animals in ResearchSharon Juliano (USA)[email protected]

Board of IBRO SchoolsJohn G. [email protected]

Book FundKate [email protected]

Brain CampaignEsther Binns [email protected]

By-laws & ProceduresEduardo Roberto [email protected]

Fellowships & Travel GrantsKwok-Fai [email protected]

FinanceSteve J. [email protected]

Neuroscience HistoryJavier de [email protected]

IBRO Centre for Equipment DonationAlan [email protected]

IBRO Cyber Journals ClubPaul H. [email protected]

IBRO-EduAnte L. [email protected]

IBRO Science Advisory ProgrammeWalter Stü[email protected]

IBRO on the Web Board of EditorsAndree [email protected]

International Registry of NeuroscienceTraining ProgrammeAndrew [email protected]

Membership and PartnershipsSten [email protected]

Neuro-GrantsConnie [email protected]

Neuroscience LibrariesMarina [email protected]

NominatingAnnica Dahlströ[email protected]

PublicationsPiergiorgio [email protected]

Return HomeFernando Lopes da [email protected]

Symposia & WorkshopsKenneth J. [email protected]

World CongressJosef [email protected]

Visit IBRO-Eduwww.ibroedu.org for

Neuroscience Learning Resources

NEW DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMESFOR IBROIn February this year, Stephanie Wubben took upa new position at IBRO as Director of Programmes.She is assisting in web site maintenance and datacollection such as on-line applications forfunding, alumni records, and elections.She hopes to set in motion new and creativeways in which IBRO’s committees can share anddisplay information on the web site. Stephanie isoriginally from Dubuque, Iowa, USA.Before moving to Paris, she was a patterndesigner for Victoria's Secret in New York.

Stephanie Wubben

IBRO’S SCIENCE ADVISORY PROGRAMMEOFFERS EVALUATION SERVICE TO

NEUROSCIENCE INSTITUTES

IBRO’s Science Advisory Programme (ISAP), created in 2003 and chaired by Walter Stühmer (Germany),offers a new service to the world neuroscience community. Institutes or university departmentsengaged in brain research anywhere in the world can request from IBRO an evaluation of their researchactivities. Based on a brief description of an institution’s research profile, an advisory board of international experts in the relevant fields is chosen to carry out the review.At the end of each sitevisit, the board prepares a written report of each team or laboratory in the research institution. ISAPevaluations should help institutions develop a strategy to support the best programmes and most promising research groups and provide indispensable information for decision making by agencies running such facilities.The reports will form the backbone of an IBRO database of neuroscience institutions worldwide, which will be maintained in the form of a World Map of Brain Research on theIBRO web site.

In April 2004 ISAP received its first request for evaluation by the Institute of Experimental Medicine,Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest,Walter Stühmer described the evaluation:“The Institute forExperimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Science, Budapest, Hungary (Director:Tamas Freund) wasthe first institution to request a review by the IBRO Science Advisory Programme.The members of theScientific Advisory Board were Marina Bentivoglio, (Italy), Jean-Claude Lacaille (Canada), Henry Markam(Switzerland), Roger Nicoll (USA) and Larry Swanson (USA).

“This very first review served as a test for the procedures established or the assessment of institutionalperformance. Issues to be addressed in the ISAP's evaluations include the research structure of the institute, future plans, external funding, and rate and quality of publications.The Advisory Board's reportconsists of two parts: one that is immediately made available to all members of the institute; and theother confidential, more detailed and specific in its assessment, which is sent to the head of the institute. Both are aimed at giving the institution under review tools and suggestions for furtherimprovement.The ISAP hopes to strengthen the neurosciences by assisting institutions in their ownquest to achieve and maintain international research and academic standards. Special mention has beenmade of the external and thus unbiased nature of the evaluation that the programme provides. Otherrequests for review have been received and we hope that as this programme achieves greater visibility,more institutions will use this opportunity to be reviewed by an external panel of neuroscientists.”For more information, contact ISAP Chair Walter Stühmer ([email protected]) or go to:http://www.ibro.info/Pub_Main_Display.asp?Main_ID=234

IN THE NEWS

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BRAIN CAMPAIGN FUNDS EDUCATIONAL EVENTSThe Brain Campaign is a joint venturebetween IBRO, SFN, the Dana Alliancefor Brain Initiatives, and EDAB(European Dana Alliance for the Brain)to help create better public understandingof the brain.With financial help from theBrain Campaign, neuroscientists aroundthe world organize public educationalevents. Each March many events arefocused on Brain Awareness Week, whenhundreds of public events are staged todraw attention to what is being accomplished in scientific laboratoriesand provide information to the publicabout the brain.

In 2005 the Brain Campaign gave awardstotalling $6000 to help fund 12 publiceducation projects, including: Cuba:Neuroscience for All: Our Brain, OurFriend; Mexico: Exhibition of postersand anatomical models in metro stationLa Raza; Venezuela: Children’s work-shops on the brain; Australia: Children’sworkshops on the brain; India:Exhibitions, symposia, competition;Cameroon: Explaining epilepsy & dispelling people’s fears; Kenya:Discovering the Brain (workshop forhigh-school students), Public information

campaign on Health and Socio-economic Burdens of Brain Disorders; Morocco: Symposium on Brainand Disabilities (for young people);Uganda: Understanding of the Structureand Functioning of the Brain and CommonBrain Disorders (poster exhibition andseminars for young people).Brain Campaign web sitewww.braincampaign.org

NEUROSCIENCE NEWS AND EVENTS

Brain Awareness Week in Manzanillo, Cuba, March 15-16,2005, supported by IBRO. Painting Competition: 1st Prize:’Sexto sentido’ by Eusebio Merladet.

BRAZILIAN NEUROSCIENTIST WINSNEUROSCIENCE COVER COMPETITIONThe winning image of the 2004 Neuroscience cover competition was the cover for Vol. 125, Issue 3, 2004,which is in the article 'Limbic epileptogenecity, cell loss and axonal reorganization induced by audiogenicand amygdala kindling in wistar and sudiogenic rats (WAR strain)'.The author is NorbertoGarcia-Cairasco,Assistant Professor of Physiology (Neurophysiology), Director of the Neurophysiologyand Experimental Neuroethology Laboratory (LNNE), Physiology Dept., Ribeirao Preto School ofMedicine, University of Sao Paulo, Ribeirao Preto, SP, Brazil. Dr Garcia-Cairasco described the image:“The work is related to the behavioral and cellular evaluation of chronic seizures in a geneticallydeveloped audiogenic rat strain.The so-called audiogenic kindling is a known model of limbic networksrecruitment, with impact in epilepsy research.The composite image was created with digital manipulationand enhancement using digital capturing of actual Nissl and Timm stained sections and modified inPainter software (Corel).”

This year the Editors of Neuroscience once again invite all authors who have papers accepted forpublication in the journal during 2005 to enter a competition for the year's best cover design.

The competition is judged by the IBRO Publications Committee. The winner will receive $1000 worth ofbooks from Elsevier, publishers of the journal.

Foreign students wishing to travel to a meeting orstudy in the US are likely to encounter equallyfrustrating problems. Since September 11, 2001harsh restrictions on visas have resulted in areduction of foreign neuroscientists attending USmeetings and the inability of internationalstudents to obtain visas for work in USneuroscience establishments.

According to the US National Science Board inits 2004 report Science and EngineeringIndicators 2004, the US State Department issued20% fewer visas for foreign students in 2001 thanin 2000, and the rate fell further between 2001and 2002. Meanwhile, the number of jobsrequiring advanced science and engineering skillsis growing almost 5% annually. In contrast,countries in Europe and Asia have increased theirinvestment in science and engineering educationat higher rates than the US and are continuing tooffer attractive opportunities for foreign talent.

There was a reduction in foreign applications of28% for the 2004 school year, according to a USCouncil of Graduate Schools survey.So far in the 2004-5 school year, the CGS reportsa 5% per cent drop in foreign student applicationsto US graduate programmes, the largest numberbeing students from China and India and in the

engineering and business fields.In October 2004 the US Fogarty InternationalCenter (FIC) published information on visas forforeign scientists, emphasizing that Fogarty itselfcould not "help with Visas for foreign scientistsother than providing invitations for FIC meetingsthey are to attend."

In response, the US government in February 2005announced a relaxation in immigration policy forforeign students.The US Dept. of State and Dept.of Homeland Security jointly announced anextension of the period of security clearance forup to four years for visa-holding scientists andstudents visiting the country from overseas.Also,new regulations make available 20,000 new H-1Bvisas for foreign workers with a minimummaster's level degree from a US academicinstitution. It is hoped that the US Government'sresponse will be sufficient to maintain access toUS neuroscience training by overseas students.Meanwhile, other countries of the world will nodoubt benefit from an increase in talentedapplicants to their training programmes.(See IBRO’s Listing of Training Programmesworldwide:http://www.ibro.info/Pub_Main_Display.asp?Main_ID=162)

New Chair for IBRO’s Return HomeProgramme: Fernando Lopes da Silva, Instituteof Neurobiology, University of Amsterdam,Amsterdam, Netherlands, has been elected byIBRO's Executive Committee as the new Chair ofthe Return Home Programme, as former ChairCarlos Belmonte steps down.The objective of theReturn Home Programme of IBRO is to developspecific policies and coordinate efforts with otherorganizations to improve the opportunities forproductive neuroscience research (allied to healthservices) in the less advantaged regions of theworld and to provide more aid to thoseresearchers trained overseas who wish return totheir home countries.

IAC-USNC Publishes Cyber NeuroscienceWorkshops and Lectures: IAC-USNC, servingas the US-Canada Committee of IBRO, has published the online sites of a number ofNeuroscience Workshops and Lectures entitled‘Web-based Lectures and Neuroscience Methods’

(http://www.iac-usnc.org/education.html),including the ‘2003 SfN Neurobiology of DiseaseWorkshop’, ‘Archived Webcasts of NIH Lectures’,IBRO's educational website ‘IBRO-Edu’, and‘Methods in Neuroscience’.

SfN Offers Reduced Fees for Members inDeveloping Countries: In an effort to provideaid to neuroscientists and students living inresource-restricted countries and to broadenaccess to all areas of the world, the Society forNeuroscience is offering reduced dues for theyear 2005 to members in more than 100 developing countries. Details can be found on theSfN web site (http://sfn.org).

HFSP/TWAS/Wellcome Trust/EMBOReport on Promotion of Science inDeveloping Countries: As a result of a meetingbetween the Human Frontier Science Program(HFSP), the Third World Academy of Sciences(TWAS), the Wellcome Trust and the European

Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) inTrieste, Italy, 8-10 November 2003, the followingpapers have been published: ‘Promoting LifeScience Research and Training in DevelopingCountries:A Need for Concerted Action’;‘Research and Education in Resource-constrainedCountries’; ‘The Pipeline and the Tree:Towards aNew Paradigm for Education’, ‘Training andCareer Paths in the Natural Sciences’.Thesereports can be found on the HFSP web site athttp://www.hfsp.org/pubs/PosPap_top.php

Fogarty International (NIH) AnnounceGrant-writing Help and Information:Fogarty International Center (NIH) hasannounced web sites for help and informationwith grant-writing: http://www.fic.nih.gov(click on Funding);http://www.fic.nih.gov/butrum/welcome.pdf(Grants Information CD);http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/oer.htm;http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/resources.htm

NEWS IN BRIEF • NEWS IN BRIEF • NEWS IN BRIEF • NEWS IN BRIEF • NEWS IN BRIEF

IBRO SECRETARY-GENERAL TO CHAIRSYMPOSIUM AT SfN MEETING

‘Neuroscience Education and Research in the Developing World’Jennifer Lund, Secretary-General of IBRO, is to chair the Symposium on Neuroscience Education andResearch in the Developing World on Monday, November 14, 2005, 1:30-4:00 pm at the WashingtonConvention Center, Ballroom A,Washington, DC, USA in conjunction with the Society for Neuroscience35th Annual Meeting.Topics will include current strategies for assisting neuroscience education andresearch in disadvantaged world regions.The many foreign members of the SfN will have theopportunity to discuss with leaders of the International Brain Research Organization's RegionalCommittees how international programmes are best formulated to help them develop and sustaintheir own neuroscience communities.The schedule is as follows:

1.30 pm (460.1): Introduction. J. S. Lund Utah University, USA.1.40 pm (460.2): Formats for Education:Visiting Lecture Team, Schools, Fellowships and MeetingSponsorship.A. J.Aguayo, McGill University, Canada.2.05 pm (460.3):The Needs of Neuroscience in Developing Countries. R. N. Kalaria, Newcastle GeneralHospital, UK.2.30 pm (460.4): Use and Care of Animals in Research in Developing Countries. S. L. Juliano,USUHS, USA.2.55 pm (460): Neuroscience Outreach by North America to the Developing World. B. S. McEwen,Rockefeller University, USA.

SfN Waives Registration Fees for IBRO TravelGrantees to Attend 35th Annual Meeting

The Society for Neuroscience will provide complementary registration for the recipients of SfN/IBROInternational Travel Fellowships, and the IBRO Travel Grants to attend the SfN 35th Annual Meeting inWashington, DC, November 12-16, 2005.The partnership between SfN and IBRO continues to focus onproviding support to scientists from the less developed countries to share their research findings withthe neuroscience community.

FOREIGN SCIENTISTS FACE US VISA PROBLEMS

SARETI Offers Health Research EthicsTraining: The Sareti African Research EthicsTraining Initiative (SARETI), with partnersUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal (School ofPsychology) the University of Pretoria (School ofHealth Systems and Public Health), and the JohnsHopkins University (Bio ethics Institute,Bloomberg School of Public Health), is a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary educationprogramme in health research ethics for Africa.

SARETI aims to build African capacity for the ethical review of health research and to strengthen Africa's institutional training capacitynecessary to achieve and sustain this. It offersadvanced training in health research ethics to scientists and other professionals involved withhealth research in Africa. Further information canbe obtained on the SARETI web site:http://shsph.up.ac.za/sareti.htm

BAW banner in Chandigargh, India where aseries of public lectures was held at thePostgraduate Institute of Medical Educationand Research’s Dept of Neurology.Credit: Renju Kuriakose.

2006-2007IBRO’S FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

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Chair: Kwok-Fai So

Applications and information for IBROFellowships and Travel Grants are to befound on-line on the IBRO web sitehttp://www.ibro.info/Pub_Main_Display.asp?Main_ID=3

The IBRO Fellowship Programme:The IBRO Fellowship & Travel GrantsProgramme aims to foster neuroscienceresearch in the less developed and lesswell-funded countries by providing fundingsupport to high-quality candidates in theregions who wish to broaden the scope oftheir training in neuroscience by workingabroad in good laboratories, or participating atinternational neuroscience meetings. Prioritywill be given to those who have not obtainedan IBRO Fellowship within the past threeyears and who, after completion of the trainingfunded by this Fellowship, are willing to returnto their home countries, bringing with themnew knowledge and skills to advanceneuroscience in their regions.The funding for a 12-month fellowship isUS$25,000.An ‘Outstanding IBRO Fellowship’of additional US$5,000 will be awarded to thedistinguished candidate(s).Application Deadline: 1 March 2006

John G. Nicholls Fellowship:This Fellowship of US$25,000 aims to assistone promising researcher who wishes tofurther his/her training in neuroscience at adistinguished foreign laboratory for one year.The successful candidate is expected to returnto his/her home country after the training,bringing new knowledge and skills in the neu-rosciences. Candidates should be younger than30 years old at the time of application andreside in one of the 18 countries where theIBRO Visiting Lecture Team Programme (VLTP)has been held under Dr Nicholls' direction:Africa: Nigeria; Asia Pacific: China, India,Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam;Central/Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Iran andPoland; Latin America: Argentina, Brazil,Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Uruguayand Venezuela.Application Deadline: 1 March 2006

IBRO Travel Grants July-December 2006and January-June 2007: IBRO offers TravelGrants for high-quality neuroscientistsespecially from the less-developed and lesswell-funded countries to present their findingsat international neuroscience meetings.Priority will be given to those who have notobtained an IBRO Travel Grant in the pastthree years.Funding for travel will be up to US$1500per award.Applications for Travel Grants for the sixmonth period:a) July-December 2006 should besubmitted by 1 March 2006b) Jan-June 2007 should be submittedby 1 September 2006

SfN/IBRO Travel Fellowships: The Societyfor Neuroscience offers Travel Fellowships ofup to US$1500 each, for neuroscientists underthe age of 35 from the less-developedcountries of the five IBRO Regions (Africa,Asia/Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, LatinAmerica,Western Europe) to attend the 36thSfN Annual Meeting in 2006.The applicantshould be the first author of an abstract to bepresented at the annual meeting. Copy ofabstract submitted to SfN for a poster or aplatform presentation is required.Application Deadline: 1 March 2006.

All applicants should fill in the appropriatefellowship or travel grant application formsprovided on-line on the IBRO web site:www.ibro.info/Pub_Main_Display.asp?Main_ID=3.There are no hard copies of forms available.Applicants cannot apply for more than onecategory of funding for travel (IBRO TravelGrant, SfN/IBRO International TravelFellowship) or fellowship (IBRO ResearchFellowship, John G. Nicholls Fellowship).

Current funding levels of all Fellowshipsare under review for 2006.

FELLOWSHIPS & TRAVEL GRANTS

PENS: Programme forEuropean NeuroscienceSchools: PENs web sitehttp://mars.glia.mdc-

berlin.de/pens/ for furtherinformation and applicationdetails about this new jointfunding venture between

FENS and IBRO.

SYMPOSIA & WORKSHOPS FUNDED IN 2005Sri Lanka: Human brain autopsy tissue inresearch on neuroregeneration andneurodegeneration (January)India: Workshop on evolution ofdevelopmental mechanisms that underliebehaviour (January)Italy: 3rd International Meeting on Steroidsand Nervous System (February)Argentina: 7th Argentine Workshop inNeuroscience (April)South Africa: Chronobiology in Africa (April)Iran: Workshop on Cognitive Science andNeurophilosophy (May)Netherlands: Introductory Course for YoungGlial Cell Researchers (May)Venezuela: 3rd Caribbean NeurobiologyCourse Brain-Environment Interactions (June)Spain: 28th European Conference on VisualPerception (August)France: Nature/Nurture in Brain Development andNeurological Disorders (September)

Cuba: IX International Conference onCognitive Neuroscience (September)UK: The fMRI Experience (September)Russia: International Summer School inBehavioural Neurogenetics (September)Slovak Republic: 5th Symposium onExperimental and Clinical Neurobiology(September)Croatia: Mind and Brain V: Physics and theBrain (September)Israel: Intracellular Recordings In-vivo(September)Croatia: 2nd IBRO/FENS Summer SchoolDevelopment and Plasticity of the HumanCerebral Cortex (September)Spain: XII International Symposium onCholinergic Mechanisms (October)Argentina: 8th Latin American Symposiumon Chronobiology Neurophysiology ofBiological Rhythms (October)

SYMPOSIA AND WORKSHOPSChair: Ken Muller

IBRO invites requests for partial funding of Symposia and Workshops on important topics inneuroscience with the aim of encouraging neuroscience research and scholarship in regions ofthe world with limited funds for science. Participants should represent the internationalneuroscience community as well as regional interests. Meetings should have a clear focus on aparticular topic. Preference will be given to activities that include younger scientists and offertraining for scientists from countries in which little money is available for research or teaching.

Applicants are encouraged to include a component available publicly on the web that couldinvolve participant discussion either before or after a regular symposium or workshop.Such discussions might, for example, include opportunities for students and others to askquestions, make suggestions and provide relevant information.

Symposia should deal with topics of key interest, specialized or broad, with background talks tohelp those unfamiliar with the material, as well as accounts of current research.

Workshops are more technical and practical in orientation.A major portion of the programmeshould involve discussion, practical teaching of techniques and the presentation of concepts andcontrols necessary for experimental work.Workshops that bring useful techniques and donatepermanent equipment to less funded countries are encouraged.

IBRO will publish abstracts of its supported events on the IBRO web site for the information ofthe membership at large.

Deadlines: Deadlines for receiving proposals are 1 February and 1 September each year.

Further information on the IBRO web site: http://www.ibro.info/Pub_Main_Display.asp?Main_ID=143

Fellowships andgrants awarded

2005-2006Nine Research Fellowships were awardedto neuroscientists from less well-funded

countries by IBRO in 2005. Oneneuroscientist was awarded the John G.

Nicholls Fellowship.Thirty-oneneuroscientists were awarded IBRO Travel

Grants for the period July-December2005.There were three recipients of theNIDA/IBRO Travel Fellowship 2005 for

attending the NIDA (National Institute onDrug Abuse) satellite meeting at the 2005SfN Meeting in Washington, DC. Fifteen

candidates won SfN/IBRO TravelFellowships to attend the 2005 SfN Meeting.

Levi Montalcini Fellowships for African Womenin Neuroscience

In July IBRO announced two Levi Montalcini Fellowships, named after Prof. Rita Levi Montalcini,winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for young women scientists fromAfrica.The Fellowship for Africa provides support for a graduate student or junior facultymember for two years at an African university/institution not in the applicant's home country.

The Fellowship for Study Overseas provides support for a graduate student for two years tostudy for a higher degree or perform research at a university/institution outside Africa.

REGIONAL FUNDINGIBRO’s Regional Funding: Most of IBRO'sfunding is directed to the membership viaprogrammes managed by the IBRO’s RegionalCommittees: http://www.ibro.info/Pub_Main_Display.asp?Main_ID=241

OTHER FUNDINGSOURCESIBRO Neuro-Grants Info: Under thechairmanship of Chair Connie Atwell, thisprogramme provides an international fundingdatabase to facilitate neuroscientists' access tosources of support for research andresearchers worldwide:http://www.ibro.info/Pub_Main_Display.asp?Main_ID=226

European Opportunities for YoungScientists: The Life Sciences Mobility Portal fromthe European Molecular Biology Organization(EMBO) offers searchable databases of grants,courses, scientific partners for collaboration andjobs.The site also includes stories from postdocswho made the move from one country to another following a recent competition for thebest stories.http://mobility.embo.org

Fogarty/NIH Brain Disorders in theDeveloping World Program: The purpose ofthe Fogarty International Center Brain Disordersin the Developing World: Research Across theLifespan Program is to develop collaborativeresearch and capacity-building projects on braindisorders throughout life, relevant to low- andmiddle-income nations. Information:http://www.fic.nih.gov/programs/BrainDisorders.html

BULGARIAN NEUROSCIENTIST AWARDED JOHN G. NICHOLLS FELLOWSHIPDimiter Prodanov (age 30) from Bulgaria has been awarded the John G. Nicholls Fellowship for2006. He will spend twelve months, from April 2006, with Dr Jean Delbeke of the Dept. ofPhysiology & Pharmacology, the Neural Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory at the CatholicUniversity of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.The amount of the award is US$25,000.The John G.Nicholls IBRO Fellowship was created in honour of John G. Nicholls who headed IBRO’s VisitingLecture Team Programme (VLTP) from 1994 to 2002.

The Fellowship aims to assist annually one promisingyoung researcher who wishes to further his/her trainingin neuroscience at a distinguished foreign laboratory forone year.The successful candidate is expected to returnto his/her home country after the training, bringing newknowledge and skills in the neurosciences. Dr Prodanovattended an IBRO VLTP course in 1998 in Sofia,Bulgaria. His former supervisor in Bulgaria was Prof.Dr Nadka Boyadjieva of the Dept. of Pharmacology andToxicology, Medical University, Sofia.He is presently working in Prof. Enrico Marani’s neuroregulation group in the Department of Neurosurgery, Leiden University Medical Center,Netherlands. He has three publications and one of these is in the journal Arch. Physiol. Biochem.,another in Biomed. Rev. and he is 5th author on a publication in J. Pharm. Pharmacol.

Dimiter Prodanov

IBRO’S ‘OUTSTANDING FELLOWS’ . . .ALUMNI REUNIONSRESEARCH FELLOWS & ALUMNI

5

OUR ALUMNIAROUND THE WORLDAt the last count, the number of IBRO Alumnistood at more than 1000, with more and moreyoung neuroscientists participating in IBRO’sschools, workshops and Visiting Lecture TeamProgramme (VTLP) courses around the world.Over the year there have been reunions,parties and the first IBRO Alumni Symposiumin Montevideo.

More than 200 Alumni attended a joint FENS(Federation of European Neuroscience)/IBROAlumni reunion during the FENS July 2004 meeting in Lisbon, Portugal.Attention was drawnto the importance of the role of mentoring ofpromising young students.

During the Society for Neuroscience 2004 meeting in San Diego, CA, USA, an InternationalTraining and Collaboration Social for HumanFrontier Science Program (HFSP) Awardees and

IBRO LARC Alumni, Montevideo, Uruguay

IBRO Alumni was held. Everyone had the chanceto discuss international education and researchopportunities.The event was combined with asatellite symposium ‘Neuroscience in DevelopingCountries: Do You Dare Return Home?’,organized by Gregory Quirk (Puerto Rico) andGladys Maestre (Venezuela), when neuroscientists presented their return-home experience,highlighting key issues and problems.

IBRO’s 1st Alumni Symposium followed the TenthIBRO Latin America School of Neuroscience,Montevideo, Uruguay in March 2005.Eighty scientists attended the symposium,organized by Omar Macadar,Ana Silva, their colleagues, and Alumni Programme CoordinatorSigismund Huck.The Latin America Alumni sent amessage of good luck to their African colleagueswho were about to attend an Alumni reunion inCape Town, South Africa after participating at the9th IBRO School, which took place during the 7thSONA Congress,April 2005.

The Alumni now have an interactive site on the

IBRO web site to facilitate interaction betweenstudents and students and faculty who have participated in IBRO educational programmesand to help create a community of young scientists. The piñata challenge, Montevideo

In the awards for 2006 IBRO Research Fellowships,three young researchers were nominated ‘OutstandingFellows’: Lucía Francini of Argentina,Thierry Charlierof Belgium, and Natalia Lozovaya of Ukraine.This category of fellowship recognizes the scientists’particularly strong potential and capability for furtherdevelopment in the area of neuroscience research.They are selected from amongst the top-rankingfellows from all the IBRO Regions. All three are keento broaden the scope of their training in neuroscienceand will be taking up positions abroad inestablished laboratories.

Lucia Francini, Institute for GeneticEngineering and Molecular Biology(INGEBI), Buenos Aires,Argentina

I work as a postdoctoral fellow at the laboratoryof Dr Belén Elgoyhen at the Institute for GeneticEngineering and Molecular Biology (INGEBI) inBuenos Aires,Argentina. In this laboratory I amconducting a project whose major aim is toelucidate the evolutionary history of acetylcholine

nicotinic receptors(nAChR) subunits invertebrates.We arealso interested inthe co-evolutionbetween subunitinteracting domains.To understand theorigin and evolutionof nAChRs subunitswe use a bioinformaticsbased approach.During the IBROFellowship year 2006

I will have the opportunity of joining Dr BruceLahn’s laboratory, in the Dept. of HumanGenetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.In this lab I shall be working in a project whosemajor aim is the identification and study ofcandidate genes responsible for determining thedistinctive abilities of the human brain.Determinant traits of humanness, such us the useof a complex language, long-term planning andexceptional learning capacities, are all the result ofdistinctive cognitive and behavioural abilities ofour brain that have been acquired during the last400,000 years of human evolution.To study the molecular basis underlying theparticular anatomical and functional configurationof the human brain it is necessary to understandfully what makes us humans. Moreover, theidentification of genes responsible for ourparticular cognitive capacities will be crucial tothe understanding of altered molecular functionsunderlying complex mental diseases such usschizophrenia, dyslexia, autism and attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).I am convinced that this experience will allow meto take a key step in my scientific career becauseit will increase my education in evolutionarygenetics, a fascinating field still underdeveloped inSouth America.After finishing the trainingproposed here, my next goal will be to set up myown laboratory in Argentina to perform studies inbrain molecular genetics using an evolutionary

THREE RESEARCH FELLOWS NOMINATED OUTSTANDING FELLOWS approach. I also expect to have theopportunity of training young doctoral studentsin this novel area.

Thierry Charlier, Center for Cellular andMolecular Neurobiology, University ofLiège, Belgium

I am currently a graduate student in theUniversity of Liège in Belgium in the Center forCellular and Molecular Neurobiology withProfessor Jacques Balthazart. My doctoral

research examinesthe mechanismsunderlying estrogensignaling and isfocused on thefactors involved inthe modulation ofsteroid activityin relation to specificbehaviors. My researchhas focused so far onthe physiological roleof steroid receptorcoactivators, principally

SRC-1.The function of these coactivators is toincrease the transcriptional activity of steroidreceptors such as the estrogen or androgenreceptors. Using avian models, I was interested bythe regulation of the expression of SRC-1 in thebrain and by the physiological function of thiscoactivator in the modulation ofsteroid-dependent behavior and the associatedneural gene expression.While mostly interested by the modulation ofestrogen activity at the genomic level, I realizedthat rapid changes of steroidogenic enzymeactivity also represent a physiologically relevantway of quickly modulating the concentrations ofsteroids in specific brain areas. Part of my thesiswork was thus directed towards understandingthe rapid modulation of aromatase activity in thepreoptic area (via calmodulin bindingand phosphorylation).However, a broad overview of the modulation ofsteroid action would be incomplete withoutconsidering factors that regulate the access ofsteroids to specific brain regions.After my thesis,I will start collaborating with Professor G.Hammond and Dr K. Soma, in the Dept. ofZoology at the University of British Columbia,Canada, as a postdoctoral fellow. My training willfocus on a specific globulin, the sex hormonebinding globulin (SHBG), which controls theconcentration of ‘active’ or free steroids.Whileits plasmatic form has been intensively studied,the function of SHBG in the brain remainsunclear. I will test the hypothesis that the brainSHBG limits the concentration of free steroidsand/or potentially triggers specific mechanisms atthe membrane level, finally leading to changes ofbehavioral output.Behavioral Neuroendocrinology is a tremendouslyexciting field within the Neurosciences. I amreally grateful for the fellowship offered by theIBRO, which will allow me to pursue my researchand I hope to give some insight into the

understanding of the functionality of thesemodulators of steroid action.

Natalia Lozovaya (Ukraine), Center forNeurogenomics and Cognitive Research,Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,Amsterdam, Netherlands

The main focus of my current research is tostudy the role of glycine receptors in CNS astarget for non-retrograde action of cannabinoids.Cannabinoid CB1 receptors (CB1R) account formost of all central effects of cannabinoids.Nevertheless, while the majority of behaviouraleffects of cannabinoids are absent inCB1R-deficient mice, cannabinoids still induce thecatalepsy and analgesia in these mice.The latterindicates the existence of functionally importanttargets for brain cannabinoid signalling differentfrom CB1RIn collaboration with Profesor N. Burnashev’slaboratory (Center for Neurogenomics andCognitive Research (CNCR) and VU MedicalCentre (VUMC)),Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam),we have recently obtained new data showing thatcannabinoids may directly affect the functioning ofthe glycine receptor GlyR. In isolated CNSneurons, both synthetic and endogenouscannabinoids strongly inhibited the amplitude andaltered kinetics of the Gly-activated current.These effects were observed in the presence ofCB1/CB3 receptors antagonists suggesting directaction of cannabinoids on GlyR.We demonstrated also that in conditions ofexcessive excitation depolarizing GlyRs maycontribute to the generation of seizure-like

activity in hippocampus.This activity wasdisrupted bycannabinoids.Thesefindings suggest afundamental importanceof GlyR in thehippocampal networkactivity and nominateGlyR as a noveltarget forendocannabinoidssignalling.The main purpose of

this project is to confirm and extend thesefindings obtained by electrophysiological methodsby combining them with studies in recombinantGlyRs, immunocytochemical approaches, as wellas to extend the interpretation of these findingsfor the understanding of the role of cannabinoidsignalling in the brain function.To address thefunctional implication of the direct action ofcannabinoids on GlyRs we intend to study themechanisms responsible for activation of GlyRsin hippocampus by paired whole-cell recordingsfrom neurons in rat hippocampal slices.We are going to search for glycinergicsynaptically-connected pairs of neurons.Alternatively we will test the possibility ofextrasynaptic GlyRs activation in conditions ofexcessive stimulation.

Lucia Francini

Thierry Charlier

Natalia Lozovaya

Alumni ReminiscesOne Year On

Ang Eng-Tat, a postdoc neuroscientist at theInstitute of Histology, University of Fribourg,

Switzerland, was among thestudents from China, Iran, Philippines, Iran,

Taiwan and Singapore who attended the 4thIBRO School of Neuroscience, Hong Kong,April

20–May 1, 2004:“At the opening ceremony, school

organizer Prof.Y. S. Chan from HKUwarmly greeted and welcomed each of

us personally.“There were eminent scientists from theUSA,Australia, Japan, South Korea and ofcourse HK.We were divided into tutorialgroups and headed to different labs forhands-on experience. I was taken to the

Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB), HKU,and there I had a good account of

‘Functional genomics’, where we coveredin vivo and in vitro gene transfer under the

guidance of Prof. Greg Lemke(invited specialist from Salk Institute, USA)

and Prof. Sookja K. Chung(resident investigator, IMB, HKU).

“The second week of the school was spentat Dr Ng Tor Tai International House,Kowloon Tong, HK Baptist University(HKBU).We then had lectures and

practical classes at the Chinese Universityof Hong Kong (CUHK) and Hong Kong

University of Science & Technology(HKUST). Over the course of the

remaining programme, I had a good idea ofthe field of genomics while exposed to

techniques such as non-radioactivedifferential display at CUHK and the field

of developmental biology at UKUST.

Then came the all-important presentation,for which we had to gather all our

thoughts and data acquired over the twoweeks. It turned out well and we had the

humbling experience of knowing that thereis really much to learn in the years ahead

of our respective scientific careers.In conclusion, I have benefited from theprogram and made many good friends

along the way, which I have no doubt willbear fruit in future.”

Students enjoy a meal together at the4th IBRO School of Neuroscience,Hong Kong

6

2004-2005NEWS FROM IBRO’S REGIONS

Africa Regional Committee: NeuroscienceActivities: There is a buzz in Africa in the spiritof umoja (unity) towards the promotion of neuroscience on our large diverse continent.Through the generous support of IBRO theAfrican Regional Committee (ARC) can be proudof various achievements in the past year.These include four Neuroscience Schools, theSONA-IBRO Congress in Cape Town, a regionalmeeting in Kinshasa (DRC), two specialized workshops on neurobiology (circadian rhythmsand epilepsy), continental-wide Brain AwarenessWeek events and a neuroscience course lead bythe VLTP in Kampala (Uganda).As previous years,almost 85% of the funds provided by IBRO werespent on these educational programmes and theremaining supported the SONA office, which isalso the administrative centre ([email protected])of the IBRO Africa Schools programme.

The gems of the African activities clearly comprisethe IBRO Africa Neuroscience Schools programme.Members of the ARC hosted a record number offour IBRO schools in the past year, held in Kenya,Morocco and South Africa.The 6th School on‘Neurodgeneration and Regeneration’ was held atRhodes University, Grahamstown, 10-18September 2004.The 7th School‘Neuropharmacology and Molecular Neuroscience’was held 1-8 November 2004 in collaborationwith the International Society forNeurochemistry (ISN) at the International Centrefor Insect Physiology & Ecology (ICIPE), Nairobi.For the first time students received lessons incutting-edge molecular technology including patchclamping methods.The Canadian Institute ofNeuroscience, Mental Health and Addiction(INMHA) generously supported our 8th School‘Hormones and the Brain’, coordinated by NouriaLakhdar-Ghazal (Morocco) and Quentin Pittman(Canada) and held in Rabat, Morocco, 23-29March 2005.Young people from all corners ofAfrica, including Cameroon, Democratic Republicof Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Morocco,Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa,Tanzania, Ugandaand Zimbabwe, can claim to be among the 200 orso alumni who have thus far benefited from theschools programme established in 2000.

The highlight of the year clearly was the ‘banquetof brain science’ under the world-famous TableMountain where the two oceans meet: the jointInternational Conference of the Society ofNeuroscientists of Africa (SONA), IBRO ARC andthe Collegium InternationaleNeuropsychopharmacoligum (CINP), focusing onthe Neurosciences and Neuropsychiatry in Africa,18-22 April 2005 in Cape Town. In an earnestattempt to bring clinical and basic research evencloser, over 500 delegates attended the core ofthe SONA-CINP conference, who were also welcomed by Jenny Lund (Secretary-General ofIBRO; Salt lake City, UT, USA).A unique feature ofthe scientific sessions was the large number ofyoung African scientists given the platform to tellus about neurological research in Africa.The 10thFogarty-IBRO African Neuroscience School ‘Basicand Clinical Neuroscience’ was held in Bamako,Mali, 23-27 July 2005.

Under the leadership of Pierre Luabeya (ARC;Belgium) and Prof. Kayembe Kalula (DRC) theARC supported the 2nd International Symposiumon Neurosciences in Central Africa, in Gombe,Kinshasa, 8-10 November 2004.The Associationpour la Promotion des Neurosciences(APRONES) hosted around 150 people whoattended various sessions with the general theme‘Neurosciences, Mental health and Development’.

The ARC continues to lead the IBRO AfricaSchools programme and represents the interestsof the Society of Neuroscientists of Africa(SONA), Moroccan Association of Neuroscience(MAN), Southern African Neuroscience Society(SANS), Kenyan Society for Neuroscience (KSN)and Nigerian Society for Neuroscience (NSN).The ARC at the same time continues to encourage interest groups in Congo, Egypt,Senegal and Uganda to be members of the IBROGoverning Council.

We are very grateful to our sponsors includingseveral learned societies, educational institutions,funding bodies and commercial organizations.They include IBRO, Fogarty International Center,INMHA (Remi Quirion, Canada), ISN (Roger

Butterworth and CAEN), Society forNeuroscience, SONA, the Third World Academyof Sciences, Elsevier Ltd., GlaxoSmithKline (UK),Axon Instruments (Molecular Devices Corp.),Leica (SA) and the Universities of Cape Town(SA), Grahamstown (SA), Kinshasa (DRC),Lubumbashi (DRC), Mbujimayi (DRC), Makerere(Uganda), Mohamed V University (Morocco),Nairobi (Kenya), Newcastle upon Tyne (UK),Oregon (CROET, USA) and Stellenbosch (SA).

Raj KalariaChair, ARC

Asian-Pacific Regional Committee: Fournew APRC members were elected in July 2004.They are:Ying-Shing Chan (Hong Kong, China),Fereshteh Motamedi (Tehran, Iran),VijiRavindranath (Manesar, India), and TadaharuTsumoto (Osaka, Japan). Four other servingmembers of the APRC are: Samuel H.H. Chan(Kaohsiung,Taiwan),Andrew Gundlach (Melbourne,Australia), Hitoshi Okamoto (Wako, Japan), andPaul Pilowsky (Sydney,Australia).Three membersretired from APRC: Chao-Yi Li (Shanghai, China),Elspeth McLachlan (Sydney,Australia) and Hee-Sup Shin (Seoul, Korea).

In view of the geographic separation and diverselevel of development within our region, two subgroups were formed in August 2004 under thecentral APRC as the governing body.After consultingvarious National Societies of the Federation ofAsian-Oceanian Neuroscience Societies (FAONS),the subgrouping comprise: Group A: China, HongKong, Japan, Korea, Philippines,Taiwan,Thailandand Vietnam; Group B:Australia, India, Indonesia,Iran, Jordan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan,Singapore and Sri Lanka.

The purpose of the IBRO-APRC Associate Schoolsis to introduce updated concepts of neuroscienceto graduate students in developing regions and toidentify the brightest students suitable to attendmain IBRO Schools of Neuroscience in the regionover the next couple of years.The 1st AssociateSchool (Chiang Mai,Thailand) was held in ChiangMai University (February 23-27, 2004) in collaboration with the Thai Neuroscience Societyand the Neurology Society of Thailand (localorganizers: Siwaporn Schankra,Taweeporn Sittiracha).The 30 students were from Thailand, Philippines,Malaysia, Laos, Bhutan and Vietnam. Six overseasteachers (Australia, Hong Kong) and two localteachers delivered talks.The 2nd Associate School(Chongqing, China), was held in The Third MilitaryMedical University (May 26-30, 2004) in collaborationwith the Chongqing Neuroscience Society (localorganizers:Wen-Qin Cao, Hui-zen Ruan).Thirty-six students attended from China,Thailand,India and Vietnam. Six overseas teachers(Australia, Korea, Hong Kong) delivered talks.The 3rd Associate School (Cochin, India) was heldin Cochin University of Science & Technology onSeptember 13-17, 2004 (local organizer: C.S. Paulose).Thirty-five students attended from India, Iran, SriLanka and Thailand. Four overseas teachers (Australia,Korea) and 2 teachers from India delivered talks.

The 5th IBRO School (Bangkok,Thailand) washeld in Bangkok (December 7-18, 2004) with theassistance of the Thai Neuroscience Society(local organizer: Sukumal Chongthammakun).The 6th IBRO School of Neuroscience was heldat the National Centre for Biological Sciences,Bangalore, India,August 8-20, 2005, covering basicconcepts in neuroscience using vertebrate andinvertebrate systems.

An Exchange Fellowship Scheme (age limit 40)was launched in 2004. Both applicant and hostlaboratory have to come from our region.Applicants must also provide justification thathe/she will return to the home country after theexchange.Awards were given to 7 candidates (fromChina, India and Sri Lanka) for them to perform6-month research in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong,and Singapore. IBRO-APRC provided travel supportfor young neuroscientists (especially those fromdisadvantaged countries) to attend courses (e.g.RIKEN Summer Program, Marine Biology Laboratory,USA) or to present papers at a conference (e.g. 2ndFAONS Symposium,Tehran, Iran, May 17-19, 2004).

Ying-Shing ChanChair, APRC

Central and Eastern Europe RegionalCommittee: The major activities in the Regionin 2004 were three schools.The annual CEERCSummer School was organized by Pavel Balaban,Mikhail Ostrovsky and Konstantin Anokhin inMoscow on ‘Sensory and IntegrativeNeuroscience: From Receptors to Behavior’ inMoscow, Russia,August 18-31, 2004; ‘Receptors,Channels, Messengers’ was held September 16-28, 2004 in Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine organized byPlaton Kostyuk, Oleg Krishtal and Elena Lukyanetzfrom Kiev; Maja Bresjanac organized the CognitiveNeuroscience Summer School on WorkingMemory in Bled, Slovenia, July 10-17, 2004.

In 2005 four schools were supported by theCEERC: the regular Summer School ‘SynapticTransmission and Plasticity: Presynaptic andPostsynaptic Mechanisms’, Debrecen, Hungary,organized by Miklos Antal; ‘BehavioralNeurogenetics’, Moscow, Russia, organized byPierre Mormede; ‘Confocal Microscopy’, Belgrade,organized by Pavle Andjus; and ‘Development andPlasticity of the Human Cerebral Cortex’, Zadarand Zagreb, Croatia, organized by Ivica Kostovic.These activities provide an excellent backgroundfor the new joint initiative between IBRO(WERC/CEERC) and FENS: the Programme ofEuropean Neuroscience Schools (PENS).

The CEERC awarded 30 travel fellowships for theFENS Forum, Lisbon, Portugal, July 10-14, 2004.We awarded travel grants for the ISN/ESNInternational Congress for Neurochemistry,Innsbruck,Austria,August 22-26, 2005. Severalsymposia within the region as well as a number of local research visits were also supported.

The Committee evaluates most of the proposalsit receives electronically, thus collecting the applications all year around and providing theapplicants with fast decisions. In addition, once ayear the CEERC meets in various countriesthroughout the region (Sofia, Bulgaria 2004; Kiev,Ukraine 2005) to discuss strategic issues and toevaluate candidates for the Summer School andother applications.

This year marks the departure of the five memberswho originally created the IBRO Committee forCentral and Eastern Europe:Tamas Freund(Hungary, first chair), Leszek Kaczmarek (Poland,present chair), Oleg Krishtal (Ukraine), Josef Syka(Czech Republic) and Mikhail Ostrovsky (Russia).It is my great honour and pleasure to thank myfour distinguished colleagues for their excellentservice for the neuroscience community both inthe Region and worldwide!

Leszek KaczmarekChair, CEERC

Latin America Regional Committee:The goals of the IBRO-LARC NeuroscienceSchools are to improve the quality of neuroscience education, foster links betweenalumni and teachers, establish networks toenhance scientific collaboration, and promote theinternational research projects among LatinAmerican neuroscientists.The X UruguayanNeuroscience School, partly sponsored byFogarty International, was hosted at Montevideo,March 28-April 16, 2005. It was an interestingmeeting because the organizers invited studentsfrom previous IBRO-LARC schools to participateas young faculty.The other school, the IINeuroscience School ‘Receptors, Channels and

Synapses’, in association with INMHA (Canada),will take place in Buenos Aires,Argentina,November 19-December 6, 2005. Mexican neuroscientists have planned a second RicardoMiledi Course in 2005, sponsored by the GrassFoundation and the Society for Neuroscience.

We sponsored seven courses in the LARC Regionduring the first half of 2005. Eleven courses willtake place in the second half.All planned coursesare superbly staffed with local and visiting professors.The students are selected from anexcellent pool of applicants.The LARC has thisyear financed eight specialized training courses inthe region, selected in response to two openannouncements, one for each semester, and wehave supported 11 very good proposals. Fourteenyoung neuroscience graduate students from theregion were supported to work in a laboratory inanother Latin American country to complementtheir experiments or to learn techniques thatwere essential for the completion of their dissertation.This exchange has been very important for the developing of cooperationamong Latin-American neuroscientists.This yearwe are planning to grant 24 fellowships.

Marta HallakChair, LARC

US/Canada Regional Committee:The IAC-USNC (the Committee) is jointlyappointed by the Society for Neuroscience (SfN)and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), andrepresents the interests of both organizations asthe US/Canada regional Committee for IBRO.The Committee organizes several types of programmes that benefit neuroscientists in otherregions, working with IBRO Regional Committeesand other contacts.Activities are supported byfunding from the National Institutes of Health(specifically NIDA, NIMH and NINDS), the SfNand IBRO.The Committee’s current programmesconsist of 1) courses and workshops, 2) travel fellowships to scientific meetings, 3) support forparticipation in the Marine Biological Laboratoryand Cold Spring Harbor neuroscience courses, 4)web-based teaching activities.

In September 2004, the IAC-USNC, working withthe African Regional Committee, organized aNeurobiology of Epilepsy Workshop in conjunction with the IBRO ‘Neurodegenerationand Regeneration’ course at Rhodes University,Grahamstown, South Africa.The funds to supportthis programme came from NIH, IBRO and theAmerican Epilepsy Society (AES).The 30 participants were from various Africancountries and included epileptologists and basicscientists.The workshop faculty developed withthe AES a new initiative to bring ‘AmericanEpilepsy Society African Epilepsy Scholars’ to theUSA.Angelina Kakooza (Uganda) and Albert Akpalu(Ghana) will attend the SfN Meeting, complete ascientific/clinical visiting internship at a medicalcenter, and then attend the AES annual meeting.

In 2005, the Committee worked with committeemember Gregory Quirk (Ponce School ofMedicine, Puerto Rico) and Gladys Maestre(University of Zulia,Venezuela) of the LatinAmerican Regional Committee to develop acourse on brain-environment interactions.This course was held in Venezuela, June 26-July 8.In 2006, committee member Janis Weeks willwork with the African regional committee toorganize a class modeled on the Neural Systemsand Behavior course at the Marine BiologicalLaboratory.This year the IAC-USNC is supportingthe attendance of 15 students from developingcountries who will present abstracts at the SfNMeeting in Washington, DC. Cont. on p. 7...

Students at the Bled School

Epilepsy Workshop, Grahamstown

THE VISITING LECTURE TEAM PROGRAMME 2004-2005

7

Once again IBRO's Visiting Lecture Team Programme, led by U. J. McMahan, has over the past year organized courses around theworld, from Tehran to Qingdao, from Kampala to Kazan.The lecture tours are prepared in collaboration with the local and regional

neuroscience associations in respective countries. Major funding for the VLTP is provided by the Grass Foundation.Institute of Theoretical Physics andMathematics (IPM),Tehran, Iran, May 20-23,2004: Organizers Profs. Hossein Estek,Abdolhossein Abassian and John Nicholls.About 30-40 students attended the lectures andwere joined by four to five local neurosciencefaculty members.The students were PhD andpre-PhD students at the IPM, from Tehran’smedical universities, Sharif University and Shiraz,Esfehan and Kherman. Prof. Michael Diamond(Trieste, Italy) lectured on the role of corticaltopographic organization in learning in the ratwhisker system, the application of topographiclearning to the human tactile system and thecortical coding of vibration in humans. Prof.Timothy Shallice (London, UK) talked aboutmethodologies in neuropsychology and functionalimaging that attempt to determine whetherhigher cognitive functions should be consideredas broadly distributed or modular and on the ideaof prefrontal cortex as an executive system thatcoordinates the functioning of lower-level systemsto direct complex cognition.The lecturers hadthe opportunity to visit the labs of Profs. Estekyand Abassian, which generate first-rate research inthe areas of higher visual processing in temporallobe and visual psychophysics. Several futurecollaborations and exchanges were established.

Qingdao University, Qingdao, China, July21-29, 2004: Organizers Junxia Xie andU. J. McMahan. The course was attended by 81students, teachers, research workers inneuroscience and related fields from variousacademic institutions throughout China.Most lectures concerned classical and modernprinciples of selected areas in basic neuroscience.Two lectures were devoted to funding opportunitiesfor training abroad and how to prepare grant/fellowship applications.The lecturers were Prof. John Nicholls (Trieste,Italy), Prof. Harold Atwood (Toronto, Canada),Dr Yuan Liu (Bethesda, MD, USA), Prof. HenrietteRaventos (San José, Costa Rica), Prof. ShlomoRotshenker (Jerusalem, Israel), Prof. Xiong-Li Yang(Shanghai, China) and Professor U. J. McMahan(Stanford, CA, USA).

The lectures covered the structural and functionalorganization of the visual system; principles ofsignalling; the structure, function and formation of

synapses; steps and mechanisms of nervoussystem development and regeneration; and thegenetic basis of human diseases. In a gesture ofgoodwill, Dr Liu personally donated a copy of theChinese translation of John Nicholls et al.'s FromNeuron to Brain to each of the students.A highlight of the course was the series oflectures by local faculty members: Zheng-YaoJiang, Lei Chen and Hong Jiang discussed thecellular and molecular aspects of CNS synapticphysiology and neurodegenerative diseases suchas Parkinsonism.

First Military Medical University,Guangzhou, China, July 30-August 2, 2004:Organizers Profs.T. M. Gao andJ. G. Nicholls. This was the first course ever heldin English and Neuroscience at the First MilitaryMedical University.There were 20 students fromfive universities in the region; some were medicalstudents, others PhDs and MDs, others workingin related fields. John Nicholls’ lectures on twodays dealt with signalling, development of thenervous system and regeneration.After each lec-ture there was a short discussion with questionsfrom the students. Prof. Gao leads a group withexcellent facilities for patch clamp engaged inactive research on key problems of cell biologyrelating to ischaemia and degenerative disordersof the nervous system.

Arequipa, Peru, October 28-November 3,2004: Organizers Wolfgang Trillo Alvarezand colleagues, medical students atthe Medical University of Santa Mariain Arequipa. This course was proposed andplanned entirely by medical students in Peru. In2002 after a successful VLTP course in Cusco,Peru, the medical student organization of Peruorganized one last year in Chiclayo, which wassuch a success that neurobiology was againchosen in 2004 for their annual meeting inArequipa, with many of the same faculty: JohnNicholls (Italy), José Ortiz (Puerto Rico),Francisco F. de Miguel (Mexico) and Elaine del Bel(Brazil).Wolfgang Trillo reported:“The Basic andMolecular Neurosciences course had as its mainobjective to make South Peruvian students realizethat neuroscience is a very important branch ofscience where there is still much research to bedone and that it is possible to carry out researchin a developing country such as Peru.Around 80students attended the course, representing someof the 250 students from Peruvian cities such asCusco, Puno, Chiclayo, Lima and Arequipa whohad been gathered together by the Center ofInvestigation and Medical Students (CIEM) toattend the National Congress of MedicalStudents.The VLTP course preceded theCongress.The alumni still refer to the IBRO Basicand Molecular Neuroscience Course as themodel course not only for the quality of thelectures, but also for the knowledge conferred onthe medical students in Arequipa.”

University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya, February12-13, 2005,Two-day Workshop: Organizers YouthAgency for Development of Science,Technologyand Innovation at the University of Nairobi,Nilesh Patel (University of Nairobi) and VLTPDirector U. J. McMahan. Eighty students fromvarious campuses at the University of Nairobiand other Nairobi academic institutions attendedthe neuroscience workshop.Three VLTP membersgave lectures covering the cellular and molecularbasis of neural function under normal andpathological conditions.The aim was to introducephysics, mathematics and engineering students aswell as medical students to problems of currentinterest in neuroscience and to describe methodsbeing used to solve them.The lecturers wereProfs. Elaine Del Bel (Ribeirao Preto, Brazil),U. J. McMahan (Stanford, CA, USA), John Nicholls(Trieste, Italy). Nicholls’ lectures covered theprinciples of signalling, information processing inthe visual system, CNS development andregeneration, and CNS mechanisms that regulaterespiration. Del Bel’s lectures concerned theprinciples of molecular neurobiology, correlatingfunction and gene expression, nitric oxide as atransmitter in the CNS, and an experimentalParkinson’s disease model. McMahan’s lecturesdealt with the structural basis of synaptictransmission and the steps and mechanismsinvolved in synapse formation.

Makerere University Faculty of Medicine,Kampala, Uganda, February 16-24, 2005:Organizers Dr Ebuk Moses (Dept. ofPhysiology, Makerere University) and Prof.U. J. McMahan: Nearly all the 143 courseparticipants were from Makerere University.Lectures covered classical and modern principlesof selected areas in basic neuroscience. Prof.Philippe Ascher’s (Paris, France) lectures includedthe generation of the membrane potential, ionicmechanisms of the action potential, and NMDAreceptors in synaptic plasticity and as targets indrug design. Prof. Elaine Del Bel’s (Ribeirao Preto,Brazil) lectures covered the principles ofmolecular neurobiology, correlating function andgene expression, nitric oxide as a transmitter inthe CNS, and an experimental Parkinson’s diseasemodel. Dr Alasdair Gibb’s (London, UK) lecturesincluded the electrophysiological and

Yuan Liu and John Nicholls signing ‘From Neuron to Brain’

Arequipa students

EDUCATION & TRAINING

Cont. from p. 6 . . . As in previous years, theCommittee worked directly with the Board ofIBRO Schools and the Marine BiologicalLaboratory (MBL Wood’s Hole) course, instructorsand applicant interviewers to seek and encouragehighly qualified and motivated research traineesfrom developing countries to apply for admissionto summer neuroscience courses. In 2005 theCold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York wasadded to this programme. Four participantsattended CSHL courses and five attended MBLcourses, with financial support for this programmefrom IBRO.

Finally, via the internet (www.iac-usnc.org) theCommittee has continued to work on a seminarand neuroscience methods series to bring up-to-date neuroscience information to researchers indeveloping countries.The web-based neurosciencelectures are accessible by scientists worldwideand feature narrated data slides by prominentneuroscientists. New in 2005 is the Neurobiologyof Disease Workshop, ‘Protein Misfolding as aCommon Pathway in the Dementias and OtherNeurodegenerative Diseases’, which was featured

at the 2004 SfN Annual Meeting.The IAC-USNC,together with the SfN Education Committee, isalso planning to post the Short Courses from the2005 SfN Meeting on the web site next year.

Bruce McEwenChair, US/CanadaRC

Western Europe Regional Committee:TheWERC/FENS PhD Fellowship was launched bythe WERC and FENS in 2003 in order to fund(max. US$24,000 per year) three PhD Fellowshipsin Neuroscience (two by WERC, one by FENS).Student applications had to be accompanied bythe expressed willingness of the supervisor of theneuroscience PhD programme to enrol the fellowsin the programme.Three fellows were selected:Aditee Vyas from India to the Institut de Génétiqueet de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire (Strasburg),supervisor Prof. Brigitte Kieffer; Juliana BentesHughes from Brasil to the Max Delbruck Center ofMolecular Medicine (Berlin), supervisor Dr HelmuthKettenmann; Maria Marcia Mellado Lagarde fromCuba to the University of Sussex, supervisor Prof.Ian Russell.The first two fellowships are now in

the second year while the third is completing thefirst year.

Under the supervision of Fernando Lopes da Silvaand with the help of Erik de Shutter and MikeWijnants in preparing the web site(www.neuroinf.org) a new call for applicationsto WERC Fellowships was posted in the secondhalf of 2004.The winners and recipients of the2005 WERC/FENS fellowships (each awardedUS$24,000$ per year) are:Arun Chaudhury(India:Technical University, Munich), Federico Trigo(Uruguay: Université René Descartes, Paris),George Barreto (Brazil: Istituto Cajal, Madrid).

The WERC supported the Sevilla (Spain) Latin-American Doctoral Programme on Neuroscienceand Behavioural Biology in the years 2004 and2005.This two-term programme (about 10 weeksper term) led by José M. Delgado-García andAlberto Ferrús is very popular among students inLatin America. Equally popular, the AdvancedCourse in Computational Neuroscience alsogained WERC support for two years for itsschools in August-September 2004 (Obidos,

Portugal) and August 2005 (Arcachon, France).IBRO funds for this successful course have particularly supported student participation fromdeveloping countries. In cooperation with bothCEERC-IBRO and FENS, the WERC provided thefinancial backbone for the CognitiveNeuroscience Summer School on WorkingMemory in Bled, Slovenia (July 10-17, 2004). GregaRepovs and Maja Bresjanac did an excellent job tostart this ambitious course from scratch inSlovenia (note the upcoming special issue ofNeuroscience with the two organizers as GuestEditors as an immediate result of this school).Finally,WERC funded student travel grants for thetwo FENS Winter Schools in Kitzbuehel,Austria,December 2004 and December 2005. Starting in2006, the Schools Programme of the WERC,CEERC and FENS will be run under the jointumbrella of PENS (Programme of EuropeanNeuroscience Schools) and the chairmanship ofSigismund Huck. PENS web site:http://mars.glia.mdc-berlin.de/pens/

Gaetano di ChiaraChair,WERC

pharmacological basis of synaptic transmission,AMPA and NMDA receptor currents and channelkinetics; and integration of synaptic activity.Dr Yuan Liu’s (Bethesda, MD, USA) lectures weredevoted to the nature of funding agencies thatsupport graduate and postdoctoral training aswell as research grants, and how to prepare grant/fellowship applications. Prof. U. J. McMahan’s(Stanford, CA, USA) lectures dealt with thestructural basis of synaptic transmission and thesteps and mechanisms involved in synapseformation. Prof. Kenneth Muller’s (Miami, FL, USA)lectures included regeneration of specific synapticconnections in the leech, the role of glia andmicroglia in nervous system repair, andmechanisms for simple learning. Prof. JohnNicholls’ (Trieste, Italy) lectures covered sensorytransduction and information processing in thevisual system, CNS development, regeneration inthe immature CNS, and CNS mechanisms thatregulate respiration.

Kazan State Medical University, Kazan,Russia, May 14-17, 2005: Local organizerEvgeny E. Nikolsky. The VLTP held anInternational Workshop in Neuroscience foryoung scientists; Profs. John Nicholls, U. J.McMahan,Andrea Nistri and Clarke Slater werethe lecturers at the workshop.More than 60 young scientists, graduates andundergraduates of Kazan State Medical Universityand other Kazan high schools and researchinstitutions, and young scientists from Moscow, St.Petersburg, Minsk,Yerevan and Kiev participated.During the four-day workshop the lecturers gave17 talks and held a number of conferencesintended for informal discussions of questionsarising from the lectures. On the last day ofworkshop, the speakers were Profs. R. Giniatullin(Italy), M. Bykhovskaya (USA) and E. Nikolsky(Kazan State Medical University).Very differentaspects of modern neurophysiology wereintroduced in the lectures: from molecularmechanisms governing exocytosis anddesensitization to the organization of neuralnetworks and informational processes in thevisual system.

IBRO’S Alumni . . . p. 5

VLTP in Kazan

IBRO’S NEUROSCIENCE SCHOOLS 2004-2005

8

EDUCATION & TRAININGThe Neuroscience Schools Programme is run by a committee headed by John Hildebrand and was created to link and support both

the Neuroscience Schools initially created by IBRO and its Regional Committees and those that derive frompartnerships with other national and international organizations. On average there are 15 schools each year. Much of the planning

process is now organized via the web site, with school organizers posting all data, including post-school reports, on-line.A selection of reports from schools around the world follows.

Obidos, Portugal,August 6-September 10,2004: The Advanced Course in ComputationalNeuroscience/IBRO Neuroscience Schoolintroduced students to the panoply of problemsand methods of computational neuroscience,addressing issues of neural organization fromsub-cellular to network and inter-areal levels.

Moscow, Russia,August 18-31, 2004:IBRO Summer School Sensory and IntegrativeNeuroscience: From Receptors to Behavior.Theschool was directed at graduate students andyoung postdoctoral fellows below the age of 35.The main objectives were to review recentadvances in the field of sensory and integrativeneuroscience and to provide participants with apractical experience on techniques for the studyof sensory and integrative neural functions atdifferent levels - from receptor physiology tobehavior. One student’s reaction indicated theschool’s success:“Dear Prof. Balaban [SchoolDirector], it was the greatest school I everattended and the people I had a chance to meetthere became real friends.Therefore, I would liketo thank you again for the great chance you gaveme, for all the exceptional lectures, seminars andpracticals, and all the efforts you've made tocreate this two weeks so incredible. My IBROT-shirt made a real furore in the lab.Best greetings from Cracow,Ania.”

Grahamstown, South Africa,September 10-18, 2004: At the 6th IBROAfrica Region Neuroscience School, in addition tocurrently accepted pathogenetic mechanismsassociated with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's andHuntington's diseases, and spinal injury, thestudents received instruction on cutting-edgeadvances in neuroprotection and therapeutic useof stem cells. Students were offered hands-onpractical workshops on basic neuropathology,neural stereology, cell culture methods, HPLCanalysis and electrochemistry techniques; theyalso presented short oral communications ontheir research.

Cochin, India, September 12-17, 2004:The purpose of the 3rd IBRO Asia-PacificAssociate School of Neuroscience was tointroduce modern concepts of research inneuroscience to graduate students. Students camefrom areas in the western Asian region wherethere is limited opportunity to undertakeresearch in neuroscience.

Cordoba,Argentina, September 6-24, 2004:The IBRO/INMHA School was a joint venturebetween IBRO and the Canadian INMHA(Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health andAddiction, Canada) and sought to provide aplatform for PhD students and juniorpost-doctoral fellows in the Latin-America areawhere they could acquire basic and advanceknowledge on theoretical and technical aspects in

key areas of cellular and molecular neuroscienceresearch. It covered lectures, seminars and avariety of laboratory projects.Topics includedearly development of the nervous system,neuronal cell death during development, neuronaldifferentiation and establishment of neuronalpolarity, trafficking of proteins in nerve cells,mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, differentiationof glial cells and cellular and molecular aspects ofneurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders.

Crimea, Ukraine, September 16-23, 2004:IBRO Advanced Neuroscience Crimea School:Receptors, Channels, Messengers.Thirty-twostudents from Georgia, Hungary, Poland, Belarus,the Slovak Republic, Russia and Ukraine participatedin this IBRO Summer School in Yalta, the Crimea.The school comprised 12 days of lectures andpractical courses that aimed to review anddiscuss the newest brain research achievementsin the field of receptors, channels andmessengers. Lectures were given by leadingneuroscientists from several countries coveringnew knowledge and the use of variousexperimental approaches to study differentaspects of intracellular signalling in the nervoussystem.Virtual demonstrations were also employedto illustrate practical laboratory approaches.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September27-October 14, 2004: The Second IBRO Schoolof Neuroscience comprised two weeks ofpractical activities around the themes ofNeurochemistry, Developmental Neurobiologyand Physiology of Cognition.They wereencouraged to suggest paradigms eventuallyassociated with projects they were developing.The practical activities ended with an integrativeseminar where students presented results. Localand international faculty presented their data and

the state of the art in their specific areas duringfour to five days of thematic symposia.

Nairobi, Kenya, November 1-8, 2004:IBRO Africa Region Neuroscience School.21 students on this course came from Zimbabwe,Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon, Ethiopia andMorocco.The faculty gave a series of lectureseach morning covering several major areas ofneuropharmacology, including ion channels,receptors, signalling, molecular neurobiology,genomics, channelopathies, microarrays and drugdiscovery.Technical lectures were also given onmaking electrophysiological recordings fromneurons, expressing recombinant receptors incells, mapping receptors in the brain and makingtransgenic mice. Each afternoon a series oflaboratories ran a hands-on experience ofisolating brain RNA, preparing and injectingXenopus Laevis oocytes with RNA or DNA;making two-electrode voltage-clamp recordingsfrom the oocytes; preparing a brain slice andrecording, extracellularly, field potentials from thehippocampus and inducing epileptiform activityand Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) inthese preparations.

Bangkok,Thailand, December 7-18, 2004:The 5th IBRO School of Neuroscience coveredlectures, seminars and a variety of laboratoryprojects focussing on five technique-orientedareas in neuroscience. Each was allotted to aparticular project and attended hands-onworkshops at Chulalongkorn University, MahidolUniversity and Srinakarinwirot University.

Kitzbühel,Austria, December 12-19 2004:At the FENS/Hertie/IBRO Winter School 40young scientists, mostly PhD students andpostdocs, represented 21 different Europeancountries.A wide range of model systems for thestudy of cognition, from drosophila to primate,was presented, with the emphasis onmethodological issues.A variety of techniqueswere considered including genetic manipulationand selection, in vivo electrophysiologicalrecording and functional imaging. Ethical andsocial issues related to behavioural and cognitiveneuroscience received a good deal of attention.

Rabat, Morocco, March 19-27, 2005:8th IBRO/INMHA Africa Region NeuroscienceSchool ‘Hormones and Brain’.This was anadvanced school in Neuroendocrinology, coveringbasic topics on anatomy of the neuroendocrinesystem and a specialized overview on sex-relateddifferences in the brain, including how hormonesinduce plasticity in synaptic functions and in thedevelopment of the brain in conjunction withhuman behaviour. Other topics concerned stressand hormonal regulation, hormones andneurodegenerative/neuroinflammatory/neuropro-tective process and the involvement of hormonesin brain dysfuntion/protection.The school endedwith a session on animal models (African) andhormonal regulations.

Montevideo, Uruguay, March 28 - April 16,2005: X Latin America School of Neuroscienceand IBRO Alumni Symposium: Students fromArgentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia,Venezuelaand Mexico joined Uruguayan students for threeweeks covering a wide range of topics: intrinsicmembrane properties, neurogenesis indevelopment, postnatal neurogenesis,ammiotrophic lateral sclerosis, neuroprotectionand system neurobiology.The classes, seminarsand lab work were held in different neurosciencelaboratories of Uruguay. For one day studentsattended an international symposium‘Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Beyond the MotorNeuron’ at Punta del Este.The IBRO AlumniSymposium is described in the Alumni section ofthis newsletter.

Cape Town, South Africa,April 23 – 27,2005: IBRO/ICNS Africa Region NeuroscienceSchool ‘Neural Plasticity’.Topics varied from anin-depth review of the glutamatergic system tomolecular and cellular mechanisms involved inneural plasticity in the rat hippocampus, aplysiaand the mammalian visual system.The impact ofthe environment and hormones on brain plasticitywas also discussed. Some attention was also givento myelin and the role of iron in myelination.A clinical bent to the course was added by talkson the neuropathology of the dementias andneuromuscular disorders caused by staple food(Cassava) toxin injury to the nervous system suchas konzo.The didactic lectures were spiced withtwo excellent hands-on workshops.The firstdemonstrated a battery of easy executable teststo test and establish animal models to studyParkinson’s disease and stroke.The secondworkshop exposed the students to thecutting-edge science of neuroproteomics andbioinformatics.There were open discussions onthe way forward for African neuroscientists tosecure funding and how ‘valuable’ it is when yoursubmitted manuscript is rejected by an editor of ajournal. Students came from Cameroon (2),Democratic Republic of Congo (2), Ethiopia (1),Ghana (1), Kenya (4), Nigeria (1), South Africa (5),Uganda (3), Zimbabwe (1).The students werehighly motivated.The school was a great success.

Moscow Summer School

Sharon Juliano (USA) in the lab, Grahamstown

INMHA/IBRO School, Cordoba, Argentina

Learning another discipline - the Tango,Cordoba, Argentina

Crimea School, Ukraine

9th IBRO African Neuroscience School

Fogarty MakesDonation to IBROSchools 2004-2005

Fogarty International Center, a division ofthe US National Institutes of Health (NIH),

made a substantial donation to help support six IBRO Neuroscience Schools in2004-5.The 2004 Fogarty-supported IBROSchools were held in Grahamstown, South

Africa, Cordoba,Argentina and Crimea,Ukraine. Schools in 2005 will take place in

Mali,Africa and Montevideo, Uruguay.Athird school is being planned on Infectious

Diseases and the Brain by IBRO'sClinical/Basic Science Committee Chair,

Patrick Brundin.

INMHA (Canada)Supports IBRO

Schools forThree More Years

The Institute of Neurosciences, MentalHealth and Addiction (Canada), announced

that it would provide financialsupport towards IBRO's Neuroscience

Schools in Africa and Latin America for afurther three years, from 2005 to 2008.

INMHA initially co-funded a highlysuccessful Advanced School at Stellenbosch

University, Cape Town, South Africa in2003. It also sponsored three more IBRO

schools in Africa and a school in LatinAmerica in 2004-5.

IBRO News 2005

Documents

Transcript of IBRO News 2005