Conference programme
Download PDF versions of the programme by clicking the links below
Download PDF versions of posters by clicking the links below
Monday 2nd September 2024
| Time | Session/Activity | Venue |
| 14:00 - 16:00 | Arrival, Registration and Welcome Refreshments | Great Hall |
| 16:00 - 16:15 | Opening Welcome - Alicia Hidalgo | Bramall |
| 16:15 - 17:00 | Session 1 - Developmental and cellular neuroscience Chairs: Guy Tear and Vilaiwan Fernandes 16:15 - 16:30 - Alicia Donoghue - Precise spatio-temporal dynamics of Hedgehog and Notch signalling mediate cell-fate decisions (O1) 16:30 - 16:45 - Adam Elkin - How Neuronal Stem Cells Acquire and Maintain their Identity (O2) 16:45 - 17:00 - Jeff Lee - The Imp and Syp RNA interactomes reveal a network of temporal regulators of Drosophila brain development (O3) | Bramall |
| 17:00 - 17:45 | Plenary Talk 1 - Bassem Hassan - Time to Connect The EMBO Keynote Lecture Chair: Guy Tear | Bramall |
| 18:00 - 20:00 | Welcome Reception with Hot Food Included | Great Hall |
| 17:30 - 22:00 | Cashless Bar Open | Great Hall |
Tuesday 3rd September 2024
| Time | Session/Activity | Venue |
| 8:30 - 9:00 | Arrival Refreshments | Great Hall |
| 9:00 - 9:45 | Plenary Talk 2 - Florence Besse - Regulating RNA in the spatial dimension in the Drosophila brain Chair: Matthias Soller | Bramall |
| 9:45 - 10:30 | Session 2 - Developmental and cellular neuroscience Chairs: Guy Tear and Vilaiwan Fernandes 9:45 - 10:00 - Samuel Vernon - Spontaneous neurotransmitter release is regulated by Unc-5 (O4) 10:00 - 10:15 - Dario Lasser - Molecular mechanisms controlling microtubule organization and abundance at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction (O5) 10:15 - 10:30 - Lora Fahdan - A systematic exploration of the intrinsic mechanisms controling axon growth during development (O6) | Bramall |
| 10:30 - 11:00 | Refreshment Break | Great Hall |
| 11:00 - 11:45 | Session 3 - Developmental and cellular neuroscience Chairs: Yun Fan and Vilaiwan Fernandes 11:00 - 11:15 - Johann Markovitsch - Never too late to get it right: Dynamic adhesion between lineage-related neurons organizes Drosophila brain circuit asymmetry. (O7) 11:15 - 11:30 - Elisabeth Kamper - The role of thioredoxin peroxidase in the developing Drosophila CNS during oxidative stress (O8) 11:30 - 11:45 - Suchet Nanda - Kon-RTK crosstalk controls the development of axon wrapping glia in Drosophila (O9) | Bramall |
| 11:45 - 12:30 | Session 4 - Brain Homeostasis & Metabolism Chairs: Yun Fan and Gaynor Smith 11:45 - 12:00 - Celia Barredo - The conserved AstA/Ptth neuroendocrine axis is required for starvation resistance in adult Drosophila (O10) 12:00 - 12:15 - Diana Knoblochova - Ecdysteroid signaling in energy metabolism and obesity development in flies on high-calorie diets (O11) 12:15 - 12:30 - Thomas Vaccari - Hecw controls neuronal homeostasis by promoting the liquid state of ribonucleoprotein particles and autophagy (O12) | Bramall |
| 12:30 - 14:00 | Lunch and Posters | Great Hall |
| 13:00 - 14:00 | Early Career Workshop Chairs: Carolina Rezaval and Natalia Sanchez Soriano Anissa Kempf (Universität Basel) Andrew Lin (University of Sheffield) Lisa Scheunemann (Freie Universität Berlin) | Bramall |
| 14:00 - 14:45 | Plenary Talk 3 - Irene Miguel-Aliaga - Gut feelings Chair: Yun Fan | Bramall |
| 14:45 - 15:30 | Session 5 - Brain Homeostasis & Metabolism Chairs: Matthias Landgraf and Gaynor Smith 14:45 - 15:00 - Pierre-Yves Plaçais - Diverting glial glycolytic flux towards mushroom body neurons: a memory-fueling role of CRH-like neuropeptide signalling (O13) 15:00 - 15:15 - Joseph Bateman - The neurological basis of mitochondrial stress signalling (O14) 15:15 - 15:30 - Jingyi Long - A conserved epilepsy-associated gene co-expression module in Drosophila converges on increased AMPK signaling (O15) | Bramall |
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Refreshment Break | Great Hall |
| 16:00 - 16:15 | Talks by Sponsors 16:00 - 16:05 - Biologix Limited 16:05 - 16:10 - Qidong Fungene Biotechnology Co., Ltd 16:10 - 16:13 - Andor 16:13 - 16:16 - BFKLab | Bramall |
| 16:15 - 17:00 | Session 6 - Brain Homeostasis & Metabolism Chairs: Thomas Riemensperger and Gaynor Smith 16:15 - 16:30 - Pierre-yves Musso - Taste regulation of immunity (O16) 16:30 - 16:45 - Ellen McMullen - Metabolic regulation of the central nervous system during infection (O17) 16:45 - 17:00 - Nina Surina - A novel trehalose sensor to study carbohydrate transport kinetics in the nervous system (O18) | Bramall |
| 17:00 - 17:30 | Business Meeting | Bramall |
| 17:00 - 19:30 | Poster Session with Refreshments Click here to view today's posters | Great Hall |
Wednesday 4th September 2024
| Time | Session/Activity | Venue |
| 8:30 - 9:00 | Arrival Refreshments | Great Hall |
| 9:00 - 9:45 | Plenary Talk 4 - Fen-Biao Gao - Pathogenic Mechanisms of Frontotemporal Dementia and ALS: Insights from Drosophila and iPSC Models Chair: Richard Tuxworth | Bramall |
| 9:45 - 10:30 | Session 7 - Brain disease, injury, ageing Chairs: Richard Tuxworth and Lukas Neukomm 9:45 - 10:00 - Mirjam Adams - Unravelling the role of insulin signalling in a Drosophila model of Gaucher and Parkinson's diseases (O19) 10:00 - 10:15 - Haifa Alhadyian - Understanding neuronal vulnerability during ageing: the central roles of microtubules (O20) 10:15 - 10:30 - Marije Been - A forward genetic screen implicates the RAS/MAPK pathway attenuator Pebbled in motor neurodegeneration (O21) | Bramall |
| 10:30 - 11:00 | Refreshment Break | Great Hall |
| 11:00 - 11:45 | Session 8 - Brain disease, injury, ageing Chairs: Richard Tuxworth and Lukas Neukomm 11:00 - 11:15 - Christa Rhiner - Unravelling conserved repair circuits in the fly brain (O22) 11:15 - 11:30 - Federico Marcello Tenedini - Axon length-dependent synapse loss is mediated by inflammatory cytokine unpaired 3 via phagocytic glia recruitment (O23) 11:30 - 11:45 - Bente Winkler - Macrophage invasion into the Drosophila brain requires JAK/STAT dependent MMP activation in the blood-brain barrier (O24) | Bramall |
| 11:45 - 12:30 | Session 9 - Brain disease, injury, ageing Chairs: Natalia Sanchez-Soriano and Lukas Neukomm 11:45 - 12:00 - Abigail Wilson - Enhanced cholinergic tone restores motor circuit functionality in Drosophila and mouse models of paroxysmal dyskinesia (O25) 12:00 - 12:15 - Michael Galko - ILP4 and Inr differentially regulate Paclitaxel-induced nociceptive hypersensitivity in Drosophila larvae (O26) 12:15 - 12:30 - Teresa Niccoli - Xbp1 modulates neuronal vulnerability to C9orf72-linked repeat expansion toxicity (O27) | Bramall |
| 12:30 - 13:15 | Plenary Talk 5 - Hongyan Wang - Waking up "sleeping" neural stem cells Chair: Natalia Sanchez-Soriano | Bramalll |
| 13:15 - 14:15 | Lunch | Great Hall |
| 14:15 - 22:30 | Outing to Stratford Upon Avon - Dinner not included |
Thursday 5th September 2024
| Time | Session/Activity | Venue |
| 8:30 - 9:00 | Arrival Refreshments | Great Hall |
| 9:00 - 9:45 | Plenary Talk 6 - Lars Chittka - Social insects - ancient civilisations? Chair: Carolina Rezaval | Bramall |
| 9:45 - 10:30 | Session 10 - Gene expression and molecular neuroscience Chairs: Matthias Soller and Natalia Sanchez-Soriano 9:45 - 10:00 - Aaron Allen - Transcriptional diversity of rare cell types underlying sexually dimorphic behaviours. (O28) 10:00 - 10:15 - Guiyi Li - The Toll adaptor Wek is a partner of Yki driving adult neurogenesis and gliogenesis (O29) 10:15 - 10:30 - Francisco Antonio Martin - Searching for a conserved transcriptional memory trace (O30) | Bramall |
| 10:30 - 11:00 | Refreshment Break | Great Hall |
| 11:00 - 11:45 | Session 11 - Gene expression and molecular neuroscience Chairs: Matthias Soller and Natalia Sanchez-Soriano 11:00 - 11:15 - Julie Secombe - Transcriptional regulation of neuronal development and function by the histone demethylase KDM5 (O31) 11:15 - 11:30 - Sophie Waldron - Single cell transcriptomics reveal molecular correlates of protein hunger. (O32) 11:30 - 11:45 - Lukas Neukomm - Local translation sustains synaptic function in impaired Wallerian degeneration (O33) | Bramall |
| 11:45 - 12:30 | Session 12 - Neural circuits & behaviour Chairs: Thomas Riemensperger and Moshe Parnas 11:45 - 12:00 - Megan Day - Competition Fuels Risk-Taking by Inhibiting Threat-Induced Serotonin Pathways (O34) 12:00 - 12:15 - Anna Hobbiss - Actively Frozen - a novel pattern of leg muscle activity reveals flexible freezing states and anticipates movement onset in Drosophila melanogaster (O35) 12:15 - 12:30 - Dennis Goldschmidt - Multiple navigational strategies contribute to balancing exploration and exploitation during local search (O36) | Bramall |
| 12:30 - 14:00 | Lunch and Posters | Great Hall |
| 13:00 - 14:00 | Practical workshop: Bridging Connectomics and transctiptomics David Osumi-Sutherland For more information on this workshop, please click here | G30 |
| 14:00 - 14:45 | Plenary Talk 7 - Bruno Van Swinderen - The predictive fly brain Chair: Thomas Riemensperger | Bramall |
| 14:45 - 15:30 | Session 13 - Neural circuits & behaviour Chairs: Carolina Rezaval and Moshe Parnas 14:45 - 15:00 - Marion Silies - Heterogeneous synaptic connectivity in the visual system – causes and consequences (O37) 15:00 - 15:15 - Tihana Jovanic - Neural circuit mechanisms underlying flexible sensorimotor decisions in Drosophila (O38) 15:15 - 15:30 - Marta Costa - Comparing male and female connectomes to quantify stereotypy and sexual dimorphism (O39) | Bramall |
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Refreshment Break | Great Hall |
| 16:00 - 16:15 | Talks by Sponsors 16:00 - 16:03 - Cairn Research 16:03 - 16:06 - DroBot Biotechnology Co., Ltd. 16:06 - 16:09 - RxCelerate 16:09 - 16:12 - GenetiVision 16:12 - 16:15 - Novogene Co., Ltd. | Bramall |
| 16:15 - 17:00 | Session 14 - Neural circuits & behaviour Chairs: Carolina Rezaval and Moshe Parnas 16:15 - 16:30 - Davide Raccuglia - Sensory filtering in the tired and sleeping brain (O40) 16:30 - 16:45 - Cheng Huang - Dopamine-mediated interactions between short- and long-term memory dynamics in Drosophila Mushroom Body (O41) 16:45 - 17:00 - Ishaan Kapoor - Distributed Octopamine signalling prioritises expression of recently learned information (O42) | Bramall |
| 17:00 - 17:05 | Prizes Awarded for NeuroFly Bags and T-Shirts | Great Hall |
| 17:05 - 19:00 | Poster Session with Refreshments Click here to view today's posters | Great Hall |
| 19:15 - 00:00 | Conference Dinner | Botanical Gardens |
Friday 6th September 2024
| Time | Session/Activity | Venue |
| 8:30 - 9:00 | Arrival Refreshments | Great Hall |
| 9:00 - 9:45 | Plenary Talk 8 - Gaia Tavosanis - Exploring the landscape in the mushroom body calyx Chair: Matthias Landgraf | Bramall |
| 9:45 - 10:30 | Session 15 - Plasticity and Remodelling Chairs: Matthias Landgraf and Christa Rhiner 9:45 - 10:00 - Medha Raman - Glutamate receptors interact with transcription factors to regulate synaptic scaling (O43) 10:00 - 10:15 - Cathy Gouelle - The putative monocarboxylate transporter CG8028 regulates synaptic activity through glutamate receptors at the postsynapse (O44) 10:15 - 10:30 - Sayaka Eno - Octopamine signaling regulates intracellular active zone heterogeneity depending on nutritional states (O45) | Bramall |
| 10:30 - 10:45 | Talks by Sponsors 10:30 - 10:33 - Pavel Itskov 10:33 - 10:36 - PHCbi 10:36 - 10:39 - WellGenetics 10:39 - 10:42 - Zanitiks 10:42 - 10:45 - Zeiss | Bramall |
| 10:45 - 11:15 | Refreshment Break | Great Hall |
| 11:15 - 12:00 | Session 16 - Plasticity and Remodelling Chairs: Alicia Hidalgo and Christa Rhiner 11:15 - 11:30 - Maria Fernanda Ceriani - (Ultra) structural plasticity in adult pacemaker neurons (O46) 11:30 - 11:45 - Sofia Bandao - Homeostatic feedbacks at central synapses support background invariant odor representations (O47) 11:45 - 12:00 - Andrew C Lin - Contradictory homeostatic plasticity in an inhibitory feedback circuit (O48) | Bramall |
| 12:00 - 12:45 | Session 17 - Plasticity and Remodelling Chairs: Alicia Hidalgo and Christa Rhiner 12:00 - 12:15 - Chien-Chun Chen - Sleep Deprivation Impairs Pattern Separation and Neural Coding in the mushroom body of Drosophila melanogaster (O49) 12:15 - 12:30 - Büşra Coban - Unlocking Visual Pathways: Enhanced Visual Learning Through Olfactory Deprivation in Drosophila (O50) 12:30 - 12:45 - Anna Parsons - The Toll adaptor Wek drives regenerative neurogenesis following CNS injury (O51) | Bramall |
| 12:45 - 13:00 | Closing Remarks and
announcing Neurofly2026 Chair: Alicia Hidalgo | Bramall |
| 13:00 - 14:00 | Neurofly2024 and Birmingham
Centre for Neurogenetics Social Lunch - All Welcome | Great Hall |
| 14:00 - 15:30 | Birmingham Centre for Neurogenetics launch 14:00-14:15 - Opening Address by Prof Bill Bloss, Head of LES, to inaugurate the Centre, to inaugurate the Centre. Scientific taster from across our community: 14:35-14:55 - Carolina Rezaval (School of Biosciences): "Is love blind? Mating proximity blinds threat perception" 14:55- 15:15 - Zubair Ahmed (Neuroscience & Opthalmology, Medical Health Sciences): "Inhibiting components of the DNA damage pathway promotes functional recovery after CNS injury in Drosophila and rodents" 15:15-15:30 - Closing address by the Directors and keeping in touch: Alicia Hidalgo (Biosciences), Daniel Fulton (CMH) and Stephane De Brito (Psychology) | Bramall |
Contact us
Event Management Team, Great Hall, Aston Webb Building, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, West Midlands B15 2TT
E: academic.conferences@contacts.bham.ac.uk