Monday Noon mini-series from previous academic years

2022/2023 Mini-series schedule

Hormones in Brain Function and Disease
Organizers: John Cirrito, Rachel Hendrix, Hannah Edwards (WashU Neurology)
  • October 3, 2022: Carla Yuede (WashU Psychiatry) “Stress as a risk factor for sex-dependent differences in Alzheimer’s disease”
  • October 10, 2022: Steven Mennerick (WashU Psychiatry) “The impact of neurosteroids on the brain: Where is the therapeutic benefit?”
  • October 17, 2022: Kristen Zuloaga (Albany Medical College) “Influence of sex and endocrine aging on vascular and metabolic contributions to dementia”
Human Genetics of Neurological Disorders
Organizers: Celeste Karch (WashU Psychiatry) and Gabe Haller (WashU Neurosurgery)
  • October 31, 2022: Christina Gurnett (WashU Neurology) “High throughput testing of functional variants to improve patient selection for clinical trials”
  • November 7, 2022: Kristen Brennand (Yale School of Medicine) “Using Stem Cells to Explore the Genetics Underlying Brain Disease”
  • November 21, 2022: Tychele Turner (WashU Genetics) “Precision genomics as a key component for the future of precision medicine”
  • November 28, 2022: Carlos Cruchaga (WashU Psychiatry) “Cerebrospinal fluid proteogenomic analyses: Identification of novel proteins and therapeutic targets for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease”
  • December 5, 2022: Kaitlin Samocha (Massachusetts General Hospital) “Contribution of rare variation to developmental disorders”
  • December 12, 2022: Joseph Dougherty (WashU Genetics) “High throughput assays to understand the function of psychiatric disease variants in the brain”  
Role of the Adaptive/Innate Immune System in Neurodegeneration
Organizer: David Holtzman (WashU Neurology)
  • January 9, 2023: Xiaoying Chen (Holtzman lab, WashU Neurology) “Mapping neuro-immune states in Alzheimer’s Disease”
  • January 23, 2023: David Gate (Northwestern University) “Cerebrospinal fluid immunity in healthy brain aging and neurodegenerative disease”
  • January 30, 2023: Marco Colonna (WashU Pathology & Immunology) “Different impacts on the CNS of TREM2 deficiencies in human and mouse”
  • February 6, 2023: Naresha Saligrama (WashU Neurology) “Description of peripheral and central immunological responses to neuronal antigens”
Metabolic Regulation of the Nervous System
Organizer: Ghazal Ashrafi (WashU Cell Biology & Physiology)
  • February 27, 2023: Philip Williams (WashU Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences) “Metabolic and homeostatic predictors of retinal ganglion cell resilience”
  • March 6, 2023: Ashrafi lab (WashU Cell Biology & Physiology)
    • Marion Stunault“Unravelling the metabolic changes mediated by ketone body utilization in the nervous system”
    • Anupama Tiwari“The role of mitochondrial sirtuin 3 in the metabolic plasticity of synaptic transmission”
  • March 13, 2023: Jasmin Sponagel (Rubin lab, WashU Pediatrics) “Sex differences in brain tumor metabolism reveal sex-specific vulnerabilities to treatment”
  • March 20, 2023: Camila Pulido (Weill Cornell Medicine) “How local metabolic balance defines synaptic strength”
Fundamental Mechanisms of Aging on Neurodegeneration
Organizer: Randall Bateman (WashU Neurology)
  • March 27, 2023: Shin-Ichiro Imai (WashU Developmental Biology) “Achieving Productive Aging: The Intertissue Communication for Mammalian Aging and Longevity Control and Anti-Aging Intervention”
  • April 3, 2023: S. Kerry Kornfeld (WashU Developmental Biology) “The C. elegans germline as a model of adult stem cell exhaustion: Regulation by Notch signaling and neural activity”
  • April 10, 2023: Andrew Yoo (WashU Developmental Biology) “Recapitulation of age-dependent progression of neurodegeneration in directly reprogrammed human neurons”
  • April 17, 2023: Miranda Orr (Wake Forest University) “Identifying, profiling and therapeutically targeting senescent cells in Alzheimer’s disease”
Gene Therapy and CNS disorders
Joint series with the Department of Developmental Biology
Organizer: Patricia Dickson (WashU Pediatrics)
  • May 1, 2023Jonathan Cooper (WashU Pediatrics) “Using gene therapy to treat disease within and beyond the Batten disease CNS”
  • May 8, 2023Patricia Dickson (WashU Pediatrics) “Gene and protein replacement therapies for Sanfilippo syndrome and mucolipidosis types II and III”
  • May 15, 2023: Timothy Miller (WashU Neurology) “RNA-targeted Therapies for Neurodegenerative Disease”
  • May 22, 2023: Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas (University of Pennsylvania) “Advancing molecular therapies for inherited neurometabolic disorders”
Special Seminars
  • Special Hope Center/Neurology Seminar (12p, Holden Auditorium and Zoom)
    • February 20: Jeffrey Savas (Northwestern University) “Harmonizing presynaptic protein dynamics to prevent amyloid pathology in Alzheimer’s disease”
  • Special Hope Center/Neurology Seminar (12p, Holden Auditorium and Zoom)
    June 5: Presentations by winners of the 2023 Hope Center Awards
    • Collin Nadarajah (Musiek lab, WashU Neurology): “An astrocyte BMAL1-BAG3 axis protects against alpha-synuclein and tau pathology”
    • Megan Bosch (Holtzman lab, WashU Neurology): “Sodium oligomannate alters gut microbiota, reduces cerebral amyloidosis and reactive microglia in a dose- and sex-specific manner”

2021/2022 Mini-series schedule

Complement in Neurodegeneration
Organizers: Pat Sheehan, Erik Musiek (WashU Neurology)
  • September 27, 2021: Hrishikesh Kulkarni (WashU Medicine) “Local complement activation in inflammation and injury”
  • October 4, 2021: Hui Zheng (Baylor College of Medicine) “Complement C3 and C3aR signaling in vascular aging and Alzheimer’s disease”
  • October 11, 2021: Michael Carroll (Harvard Medical School) “Over expression of schizophrenia susceptibility factor C4A promotes excessive synaptic loss and alteration in behavior”
  • November 1, 2021: Robyn Klein (WashU Medicine) “Learning from viruses: Complement and memory”
Amyotrophic  Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
Organizer: Timothy Miller (WashU Neurology)
  • November 22, 2021: Timothy Miller (WashU Neurology) “Precision Medicine for ALS”
  • November 29, 2021: Aaron DiAntonio (WashU Developmental Biology) “The SARM1 Axon Degeneration Pathway: Implications for ALS pathogenesis and therapy”
  • December 6, 2021: Adrian Isaacs (University College London) “Dissecting disease-causing mechanisms in C9orf72 FTD/ALS”
  • December 13, 2021: Sami Barmada (University of Michigan) “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: The strange case of TDP43 isoforms in ALS and FTD”
  • December 20, 2021: Yuna Ayala (Saint Louis University) “What gets TDP-43 into trouble? Understanding the connection between TDP-43 function and ALS pathogenesis”
Microbiome and Neurological Disease
Organizers: David Holtzman, Dong-oh Seo (WashU Neurology)
  • January 10, 2022: Sangram Sisodia (University of Chicago) “Role of the Gut Microbiome in the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease”
  • January 24, 2022: Brian Kim (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; formerly WashU Medicine) “Neuroimmune Regulation of Itch”
  • January 31, 2022: Beau Ances (WashU Neurology) “The Gut Microbiome in Neurodegenerative Diseases”
  • February 7, 2022: John Fryer (Mayo Clinic) “Good bugs gone bad: Bacterial influences on neurological health and disease”
  • February 14, 2022: Dong-oh Seo (Holtzman lab, WashU Neurology) “Evidence that the gut microbiota regulates progression of neurodegeneration in a mouse model of tauopathy, in a sex- and ApoE isoform-dependent manner”
G-protein-coupled-receptors in health and diseases
Organizer: Yao Chen (WashU Neuroscience)
  • February 21, 2022: Karen O’Malley (WashU Neuroscience) “Location, location, location…site-specific GPCR signaling generates unique functional outcomes”
  • February 28, 2022: Talia Lerner (Northwestern University) “Dopamine Circuits Driving the Transition to Habit”
  • March 7, 2022:  Jordan McCall (WashU Anesthesiology) “Stress-induced plasticity in noradrenergic analgesia”
  • March 14, 2022: Marc Caron (Duke University) “Therapeutic Actions of GPCR Biased Signaling”
  • March 21, 2022: Meaghan Creed (WashU Anesthesiology) “Dissecting heterogeneity within the ventral pallidum and its relevance for treating disorders of reward processing”
Neurodegeneration of the Retina
Organizer: Phil Williams (WashU Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences)
  • March 28, 2022: Bo Chen (Mount Sinai) “Neuroprotective and Regenerative Strategies for Vision Restoration”
  • April 4, 2022: Rajendra Apte (WashU Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences) “Metabolism and Retinal Neurodegeneration”
  • April 11, 2022: Thomas Reh (University of Washington) “Reprogramming Muller glia for retinal repair: Never too late to change their fate”
  • April 18, 2022: Daniel Kerschensteiner (WashU Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences) “Understanding and protecting the human retina”
Development and Disorders of the Peripheral Nervous System
Joint Series with Developmental Biology
Organizers: Mayssa Mokalled and Tony Tsai (WashU Developmental Biology)

Kindly note this mini-series is HYBRID. The in-person location is Connor Auditorium (Farrell LTC, Medical Campus).

  • May 2, 2022: Alison Snyder-Warwick (WashU Surgery) “Focusing on the motor target: The role of the neuromuscular junction in recovery after nerve injury”
  • May 9, 2022: Rejji Kuruvilla (Johns Hopkins University) “Sympathetic nervous system development and functions”
  • May 16, 2022: Valeria Cavalli (WashU Neuroscience) “Satellite Glial Cells in sensory nervous system health, injury and disease”
  • May 23, 2022: Stefanie Geisler (WashU Neurology) “Chemotherapy-induced neuropathy: From bedside to bench and back”
Special Seminar

June 6, 2022: Hope Center Awards Recipients

  • Dana Shaw (Mokalled lab, WashU Developmental Biology) “The immune balance necessary for natural spinal cord regeneration”
  • Alexandra Litvinchuk (Holtzman lab, WashU Neurology) “The relationship between ApoE4 and lipid accumulation in glia of the P301S mouse model of tauopathy”

2020/2021 Mini-series schedule

Impact of viruses on CNS function
Organizer, David Clifford (WashU Neurology)
  • September 21, 2020: Robyn Klein (WashU Medicine) “Virus-mediated diseases of pathological forgetting”
  • September 28, 2020: Kenneth Tyler (University of Colorado) “EV-D68 Associated acute flaccid myelitis: A new polio?”
  • October 12, 2020: Steven Jacobson (NINDS/NIH) “Association of Human Herpesvirus and Chronic Progressive Neurologic Disease”
  • October 19, 2020: Sean Whelan (WashU Molecular Microbiology) “Rabies virus infection of neurons”
Alternative splicing/isoforms and neurological disease
Organizers, Timothy Miller and Nathan Pomper (WashU Neurology)
  • November 9, 2020: Darshan Sapkota (Dougherty lab, WashU Genetics) “Alternative modes of mRNA translation and their neurological significance”
  • November 16, 2020: Adrian Krainer (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) “From Base Pairs to Bedside: Antisense Modulation of RNA Splicing”
  • November 23, 2020:“Data Blitz”
    • Ya-Lin Lu (Yoo lab, WashU Developmental Biology) “Neuronal PTB-mediated alternative splicing of BAF complex subunits”
    • Bryan Copits (WashU Anesthesiology) “Alternative splicing plasticity of synaptic adhesion molecules in human sensory neurons”
    • Brittany Townley (Mosammaparast lab, WashU Pathology & Immunology) “Splicing defects in the pathology of trichothiodystrophy”
  • November 30, 2020: Douglas Black (University of California, Los Angeles) “Mechanisms and Programs of Neuronal Gene Regulation by RNA Binding Proteins”
  • December 7, 2020: “3R/4R Tau Data Blitz”
    • Lucia Capano (Yoo lab, WashU Developmental Biology) “Using age-maintained, directly-reprogrammed neurons to identify human-specific tau splicing regulators”
    • Miguel Minaya (Karch lab, WashU Psychiatry) “How does 4R-Tau expression affect human iPSC-Neuron maturity?”
    • Lubov Ezerskiy (Miller lab, WashU Neurology) “Increase in 4R tau expression promotes astrocytic dysfunction”
T cells and brain disease
Organizer, Naresha Saligrama (WashU Neurology)
  • January 4, 2021: Robyn Klein (WashU Medicine) “BBB crosstalk with T cells determines their CNS entry during health and disease”
  • January 11, 2021: Michal Schwartz (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel) “The immune system holds the key to defeat Alzheimer’s disease”
  • January 25, 2021: David Gutmann (WashU Neurology) “T cell regulation of brain tumor formation and growth”
  • CANCELLED – February 1, 2021: Gavin Dunn (WashU Neurosurgery) “Identifying and targeting antigens in brain tumors”
  • February 8, 2021: Adrian Liston (Babraham Institute, Cambridge) “Using brain Tregs to treat neuroinflammation”
Dynamics of CSF and Meninges
Organizer, Jennifer Strahle (WashU Neurosurgery)
  • February 15, 2021: Jonathan Kipnis (WashU Pathology and Immunology) “Glymphatic-lymphatic system in CNS immune surveillance”
  • February 22, 2021: David Limbrick, Pat McAllister (WashU Neurosurgery) “Ventricular/subventricular changes in ‘inflammatory’ hydrocephalus”
  • March 1, 2021: Geir Ringstad (Oslo University Hospital) “Human CSF dynamics and craniospinal molecular clearance assessed with MRI”
  • March 8, 2021: Benjamin Plog (WashU Neurosurgery) “Novel Insight into Regulation of Glymphatic Flow with Implications for Traumatic Brain Injury”
  • March 15, 2021: Nathalie Jurisch-Yaksi (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) “Function of motile cilia in brain development and physiology, lesson learned from the zebrafish”
Autophagy
Organizer, David Holtzman (WashU Neurology)
  • March 22: Gilbert Gallardo (WashU Neurology) “Engineering Intrabodies that Target Tau for Autophagy mediated degradation”
  • March 29: Abhinav Diwan (WashU Medicine) “Lysosomal pathways in Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis: From matters of the heart to the heart of the matter”
  • April 5: Conrad C. Weihl (WashU Neurology) “Autophagy and Selective Autophagy in Neurodegeneration”
  • April 12: Steven Finkbeiner (University of California, San Francisco/Gladstone Institutes) “Is the autophagy/lysosomal pathway a common thread for neurodegenerative disease?”
Down Syndrome links to Neurodegenerative Diseases
Organizer, Beau Ances (WashU Neurology)

Joint series with the Department of Developmental Biology

  • CANCELLED – April 26, 2021: Kelly Botteron (WashU Psychiatry) “Early Brain Development in Trisomy 21: Considerations for Neurodegeneration in the Context of a Neurodevelopmental Disorder”
  • May 3, 2021: Beau Ances (WashU Neurology) “Alzheimer Disease in Adults with Down Syndrome”
  • May 10, 2021: John Constantino (WashU Psychiatry) “Origins and Management of Psychiatric Complications of Down Syndrome”
  • May 17, 2021: Frances Wiseman (University College London) “Understanding Alzheimer’s disease development in the context of Down syndrome; using preclinical models”
  • May 24, 2021: Anita Bhattacharyya (University of Wisconsin, Madison) “Modeling neurodevelopment in Down syndrome with iPSCs”

2019/2020 Mini-series schedule

Senescent cells in health and disease
Organizer, Jason Ulrich (WashU Neurology)
  • September 30, 2019: Sheila Stewart (WashU Cell Biology & Physiology) “Age-related stromal changes drive tumorigenesis”
  • October 7, 2019: Miranda Orr (Wake Forest University) “Targeting tau-associated cellular senescence to mitigate neurodegeneration and cognitive impairment in age-associated brain diseases”
  • October 28, 2019: Darren Baker (Mayo Clinic) “Neurodegenerative Disease Driven by Senescent Cells”
  • November 4, 2019: Shin-ichiro Imai (WashU Developmental Biology) “NAD World 3.0: The Inter-Tissue Interactions Mediated by eNAMPT and NMN in Mammalian Aging/Longevity Control”
Sex differences in disease
Organizer, Joshua Rubin (WashU Pediatrics)
  • November 25, 2019: Joshua Rubin (WashU Pediatrics) “Evolutionary and Developmental Origins of Sex Differences in Biology”
  • December 2, 2019: Trainee Talks
    • Jasmin Sponagel (Molecular Cell Biology graduate student, Rubin lab (WashU Pediatrics)) “Sex Differences in Redox State Underlie Glutamine Dependency in Male Glioblastoma”
    • Lauren Broestl (MSTP student, Rubin Lab (WashU Pediatrics)) “Astrocyte Senescence Contributes to Sex Differences in Glioblastoma Incidence and Outcome”
    • Nathan Rockwell (Molecular Cell Biology graduate student, Rubin lab (WashU Pediatrics)) “Investigating sex differences in p53 gain-of-function mutations in glioblastoma”
    • Sarah Rosen (Posdoctoral Research Scholar, Klein lab (WashU Medicine)) “Sexually Dimorphic Immune Responses to Neuroinvasive West Nile Virus”
  • December 9, 2019: Manu Goyal (WashU Radiology) “Sex differences in human metabolic brain aging”, Joseph Ippolito (WashU Radiology) “Metabolism-driven sex differences in cancer outcomes: implications for diet and obesity”
  • December 16, 2019: John Constantino (WashU Psychiatry) “Closing in on the Cause(s) of the Pronounced Sex Ratio in Autism”, Joseph Dougherty (WashU Genetics) “A model for gene-based and sex-based risk in psychiatric disease”
Molecular Neuroimaging
Organizer, Brian Gordon (WashU Radiology)
  • January 6, 2020: Ana Maria Arbelaez (WashU Pediatrics)
  • January 13, 2020: Brian Gordon (WashU Radiology) “Multimodal imaging in disease”
  • January 27, 2020: William Kreisl (Columbia University) “”What can PET imaging of translocator protein 18 kDa (TSPO) teach us about Alzheimer’s disease?””
  • February 3, 2020: Joel Perlmutter (WashU Neurology) “Neuroimaging biomarkers of parkinsonism”
Phase transitions/intrinsically disordered domains
Organizers, Chris Weihl (WashU Neurology) and 
Alex Holehouse (WashU Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics)

Joint series with the Department of Neurology and the Center for Science and Engineering of Living Systems (CSELS)

  • February 10, 2020: Carlos Castañeda (Syracuse University)“Protein droplets and ALS: Liquid-liquid phase separation of UBQLN2 is modulated by oligomerization, ALS-linked mutations, and ubiquitin binding”
  • February 24, 2020: Alex Holehouse (WashU Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics) “The physical basis for phase separation of intrinsically disordered proteins”
  • March 2, 2020: Rohit Pappu (WashU Biomedical Engineering) “Phase separation of multivalent proteins implicated in neurodegeneration”
  • CANCELLED – March 9, 2020: James Shorter (University of Pennsylvania) “Combating deleterious phases in ALS/FTD”
Autophagy
Organizer, David Holtzman (WashU Neurology)

Due to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic the following Hope Center/Neurology Monday Noon Seminars were cancelled.

  • March 23, 2020: Steven Finkbeiner (University of California, San Francisco/Gladstone Institute)
  • March 30, 2020: Conrad C. Weihl (WashU Neurology)
  • April 6, 2020: Gilbert Gallardo (WashU Neurology)
  • April 13, 2020: Abhinav Diwan (WashU Medicine)
Cell fate control and function during neural development
Organizers, Andrew Yoo, Samantha Morris (WashU Developmental Biology)

Joint series with the Department of Developmental Biology

Due to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic the following Hope Center/Neurology Monday Noon Seminars were cancelled.

  • April 20, 2020
  • May 4, 2020: Paschalis Kratsios (University of Chicago)
  • May 11, 2020: Mayssa Mokalled (WashU Developmental Biology)
  • May 18, 2020

2018/2019 Mini-series schedule

Translational Machinery and Neurological Diseases
Organizer, Joseph Dougherty
  • September 24, 2018: Eric Wang (University of Florida) “The double life of RNA binding proteins in muscle and the central nervous system – implications for Myotonic Dystrophy”
  • October 1, 2018: Sebla Kutluay (WashU Molecular Microbiology) “Unexpected Roles of RNA-binding Proteins in HIV-1 Replication”
  • October 8, 2018: Brian Clark (WashU Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences) “Comprehensive Analysis of Retinal Development at single-cell resolution”
  • October 15, 2018: Sergej Djuranovic (WashU Cell Biology & Physiology) “mRNA sequence determinants of the efficient protein synthesis”
Sleep and Disease
Organizer, Yo-El Ju
  • November 19, 2018: Amy Licis (WashU Neurology) “Sleep disturbances in Wolfram syndrome”  
  • November 26, 2018: Erik Herzog (WashU Biology) “Clock cartography: Mapping circadian connections and dysfunctions”
  • December 3, 2018: Yo-El Ju (WashU Neurology) “Sleep and amyloid-beta”
  • December 10, 2018: Jon Willie (Emory University) “Deep Brain Stimulation: Hope for Narcolepsy with Cataplexy?”
Environmental Factors in Disease
Organizer, Ream Al-Hasani
  • January 7, 2019: Brad Racette (WashU Neurology) “Human Environmental Mn Exposure as a Model of Neurodegeneration”
  • January 14, 2019: Joseph Bloom (WashU Psychiatry) “Genetic and environmental factors influencing nicotine metabolism and dependence”
  • CANCELLED January 28, 2019: Jordan McCall (WashU Anesthesiology) “The maternal and homecage environments as important drivers of neural circuit dysfunction”
  • February 4, 2019: Patricia Jensen (NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) “Genetic approaches toward defining noradrenergic neuron diversity”
Stroke, Plasticity and Recovery
Organizer, Jin-Moo Lee
  • February 18, 2019: Jin-Moo Lee (WashU Neurology) “Plasticizing the Cortex to Enhance Stroke Recovery”
  • February 25, 2019: Gregory Zipfel (WashU Neurosurgery) “The Promise of Conditioning-Based Therapy for Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage”
  • March 4, 2019: S. Thomas Carmichael (University of California, Los Angeles) “Neural Repair after Stroke: Smart Mice to Smart Humans”
  • March 11, 2019: Nico Dosenbach (WashU Neurology) “Precision Functional Mapping of Individual Brains”
Cholesterol Metabolism in Disease
Organizers, Anil CashikarSteve Mennerick
  • March 25, 2019: Gwendalyn Randolph (WashU Pathology & Immunology) “Lipoprotein trafficking through the interstitium and lymphatics in chronic inflammatory disease”
  • April 1, 2019: Suzanne Pfeffer (Stanford University) “Cholesterol and membrane trafficking: implications for Niemann Pick Type C and familial Parkinson’s disease”
  • April 8, 2019: Douglas Covey (WashU Developmental Biology) “Click chemistry for studies of cholesterol, oxysterol and neurosteroid biology”
  • April 15, 2019: Jonathan Cooper (WashU Pediatrics) “The same, but different. New lessons about Batten disease”
Modeling Neurological Disorders Using Stem Cell-based Approaches
Organizers, Andrew Yoo, Samantha Morris, Celeste Karch

Joint series with the Department of Developmental Biology

  • April 22, 2019: Aaron DiAntonio (WashU Developmental Biology) “Axon Degeneration: Mechanistic Insights Yield New Therapeutic Strategies for Neurodegenerative Diseases”
  • April 29, 2019: Albert Kim (WashU Neurosurgery) “Maintenance and modeling of glioblastoma stem-like cells”
  • May 13, 2019: Celeste Karch (WashU Psychiatry) “Modeling tauoapthies in human stem cells”
  • May 20, 2019: Justin Ichida (University of Southern California) “Using Cellular Reprogramming to Identify New Therapeutic Targets for Neurodegenerative Diseases”
Special Seminars
  • October 22, 2018: Ronald Cohn (Fluidigm), Stephen Oh (WashU Medicine) “Hyperion Imaging System”
  • November 12, 2018: Leonard Petrucelli (Mayo Clinic) “Mechanistic and Therapeutic Insights into c9orf72 FTD/ALS”*BJC Investigator Program Seminar co-hosted by the Department of Neurology and Department of Neuroscience
  • March 1, 2019: Heather Rice (KU Leuven, Belgium) “A novel role for Alzheimer’s Amyloid Precursor Protein in GABAergic signaling”
  • March 18, 2019: State of the Hope Center
    • Hiroko Yano (WashU Neurosurgery) “The role of DNA methylation in Huntington’s disease”
    • Celeste Karch (WashU Psychiatry)“Neuronal subtype-specific vulnerability in tauopathies using human stem cells”
  • June 10, 2019: Winners, Hope Center Awards – NOTE This seminar will be held in BJC Institute of Health 9AB.
    • Andrew Findlay (Weihl Lab, Neurology)
      “Therapeutic modulation of chaperone functions in LGMD1D”
    • Zachary Rosenthal (Lee Lab, Neurology)
      “Local perturbations in cortical excitability propagate differentially through large-scale functional networks”

2017/2018 Mini-series schedule

Role of Glia in Neurodegeneration
Organizer, Erik Musiek
  • October 30, 2017: Beau Ances (WashU Neurology) “Imaging of Microglia using PET and MRI”
  • November 6, 2017: Tyler Ulland (Colonna Lab, WashU Pathology & Immunology) “Trem2: key to microglial fitness in Alzheimer’s disease”
  • November 27, 2017: Robyn Klein (WashU Medicine) “Glia Reprogram Brain Function During WNV Encephalitis”
  • December 4, 2017: Joseph Dougherty (WashU Genetics) “Astrocyte alternative translation and neurological disease”
  • December 11, 2017: Erik Musiek (WashU Neurology) “Circadian regulation of neuroinflammation”
  • December 18, 2017: Kim Green (University of California, Irvine) “Exploring the roles of microglia in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease”
Addiction and Reward System
Organizer, Michael Bruchas
  • January 8, 2018: Julia Lemos (University of Minnesota) “Restructuring of basal ganglia circuitry and associated behaviors triggered by low striatal D2 receptor expression: implications for substance use disorders”
  • January 22, 2018: Jose Moron-Concepcion (WashU Anesthesiology) “Opioid-induced plasticity and the intersection with pain”
  • CANCELLED January 29, 2018: Ream Al-Hasani (St. Louis College of Pharmacy/WashU Anesthesiology)  “Dissecting endogenous opioid systems in motivated behaviors”
  • February 5, 2018: Ilya Monosov (WashU Dept. of Neuroscience) “Why would you want to know? Brain networks for uncertainty reduction”
Microbiome and Neurological Disease
Organizer, Laura Piccio
  • February 19, 2018: Larissa Thackray (WashU Medicine) “The Role of the Gut Microbiota in Neurotropic Flavivirus Infection”
  • February 26, 2018: Barbara Warner (WashU Pediatrics) “The Gut Microbiome Contribution to Neurodevelopment and Neuropsychiatric Disorders”
  • March 5, 2018: Yanjiao Zhou (The Jackson Laboratory), Laura Piccio (WashU Neurology) “Intermittent fasting and gut microbiome in CNS autoimmunity”
  • March 12, 2018: Barbara Bendlin (University of Wisconsin) “From fringe to foreground: do microbes play a role in Alzheimer’s?”
ALS-FTD
Organizers, Chris Weihl and Timothy Miller
  • March 19, 2018: Timothy Miller (WashU Neurology) “ALS and Frontotemporal Dementia” 
  • March 26, 2018: Yuna Ayala (Saint Louis University) “Walking the tightrope: an emerging role of RNA binding proteins in ALS and FTD”
  • April 9, 2018:  Clotilde Lagier-Tourenne (Harvard Medical School) “Modeling C9ORF72 disease: a crucial step for therapeutic development in ALS/FTD”
  • April 16, 2018: Meredith Jackrel (WashU Chemistry) “Protein disaggregases to counter TDP-43, FUS, DPR, and SOD1 misfolding implicated in ALS”
Neuronal Aging and Proteostasis
Organizers, Andrew Yoo and Samantha Morris

Joint series with the Department of Developmental Biology

  • April 30, 2018: Fumihiko Urano (WashU Medicine) “Precision Medicine for Endoplasmic Reticulum Disease”
  • May 7, 2018: Erik Musiek (WashU Neurology) “Differential regulation of amyloid-beta and tau by the circadian clock”
  • May 14, 2018: Shin-Ichiro Imai (WashU Developmental Biology) “Achieving Productive Aging Based on the NAD World 2.0: The Importance of eNAMPT and the NMN Transporter”
  • May 21, 2018: Anne Bertolotti (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, UK) “Boosting protein quality control to prevent neurodegenerative diseases”
Special Seminars
  • October 2, 2017: Vikram Shakkottai (University of Michigan Medicine), “Targeting neuronal dysfunction in cerebellar ataxia”
  • November 20, 2017: David Holtzman, “State of the Hope Center”
  • June 4, 2018: Winners, Hope Center Awards
    • Scott Karney-Grobe (DiAntonio Lab, Developmental Biology) “HSP90 is a chaperone for DLK and is required for axon injury signaling”
    • Alex Cammack (Miller Lab, Neurology) “C9orf72 G4C2 repeat expansions in ALS patients are dynamic and result in large dipeptide repeat proteins”