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

TimeSession/ActivityVenue
14:00 - 16:00Arrival, Registration and Welcome Refreshments
Great Hall 
16:00 - 16:15Opening Welcome - Alicia Hidalgo
Bramall
16:15 - 17:00

Session 1 - Developmental and cellular neuroscience
Chairs: Guy Tear and Yun Fan

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 - 22:00Cashless Bar Open 
Great Hall

Tuesday 3rd September 2024

TimeSession/ActivityVenue
8:30 - 9:00Arrival RefreshmentsGreat Hall
9:00 - 9:45Plenary 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 Yun Fan

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 - 11:00Refreshment BreakGreat Hall
11:00 - 11:45
Session 3 - Developmental and cellular neuroscience
Chair: Yun Fan

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 - 14:00Lunch and Posters
Great Hall
13:00 - 14:00Early 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 - 14:45Plenary Talk 3 - Irene Miguel-Aliaga - Gut feelings
Chair: Yun Fan
Bramall
14:45 - 15:30Session 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 - 16:15Talks by Sponsors
Chairs: Thomas Riemensperger and Gaynor Smith

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 - 17:30Business Meeting - All Welcome 

17:00 - 17:15 - Presentation and voting on future Neurofly meetings 
17:15 - 17:30 - Presentation by European Drosophila Society 
Bramall
17:00 - 19:30
Poster Session with Refreshments 

Click here to view today's posters
Great Hall

Wednesday 4th September 2024

TimeSession/ActivityVenue
8:30 - 9:00Arrival RefreshmentsGreat Hall
9:00 - 9:45Plenary Talk 4 - Fen-Biao Gao - Pathogenic Mechanisms of Frontotemporal Dementia and ALS: Insights from
Drosophila and iPSC Models 

Chair: Richard Tuxworth
Bramall
9:45 - 10:30Session 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 BreakGreat 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 - 12:30Session 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 - 13:15Plenary 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

TimeSession/ActivityVenue
8:30 - 9:00Arrival RefreshmentsGreat Hall
9:00 - 9:45Plenary Talk 6 - Lars Chittka - Social insects - ancient civilisations?
Chair: Carolina Rezaval
Bramall
9:45 - 10:30Session 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 BreakGreat 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 - 12:30Session 12 - Neural circuits & behaviour
Chairs Carolina Rezaval 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 - 14:00Lunch and Posters
Great Hall 
13:00 - 14:00Practical workshop: Bridging Connectomics and transctiptomics
David Osumi-Sutherland

For more information on this workshop, please click here
G30
14:00 - 14:45Plenary Talk 7 - Bruno Van Swinderen - The predictive fly brain
Chair: Thomas Riemensperger
Bramall
14:45 - 15:30Session 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 - 16:15Talks by Sponsors
Chairs: Carolina Rezaval and Moshe Parnas

16:00 - 16:03 - Cairn Research 
16:03 - 16:06 - DroBot Biotechnology Co., Ltd. 
16:06 - 16:09 - RxCelerate
16:09 - 16:12 - 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 - 17:05Prizes Awarded for NeuroFly Bags and T-ShirtsGreat Hall 
17:05 - 19:00Poster Session with Refreshments 

Click here to view today's posters
Great Hall
19:15 - 00:00  
Conference DinnerBotanical Gardens

Friday 6th September 2024

TimeSession/ActivityVenue
8:30 - 9:00Arrival RefreshmentsGreat Hall
9:00 - 9:45Plenary Talk 8 - Gaia Tavosanis - Exploring the landscape in the mushroom body calyx
Chair: Matthias Landgraf
Bramall     
9:45 - 10:30Session 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 - 10:45Talks by Sponsors
Chairs: Matthias Landgraf and Christa Rhiner

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 - 11:15Refreshment BreakGreat 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 - 12:45Session 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 - 13:00Closing 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.

Scientific taster from across our community:

14:15 - 14:35 - Stephane De Brito (School of Psychology): "Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA)"
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