Hope Center/Department of Neurology Monday Noon Seminars are now HYBRID – Holden Auditorium and Zoom!

Mini-series topics are selected by the Hope Center Steering Committee from suggestions made by the Washington University community. Each mini-series is comprised of 4-5 weekly seminars, with talks by Washington University investigators as well as investigators at other institutions who are leaders in their fields.

Have an idea for a mini-series topic? Let us know!


2022/2023 Monday Noon Seminars

Mondays, 12-1p
September – June
Location: Holden Auditorium and Zoom (*unless noted)


Join us in Holden Auditorium for the next mini-series…

Fundamental Mechanisms of Aging on Neurodegeneration

Organizer: Randall Bateman (WashU Neurology)
Location: Holden Auditorium and Zoom

  • March 27: Shin-Ichiro Imai (WashU Developmental Biology)
  • April 3: S. Kerry Kornfeld (WashU Developmental Biology)
  • April 10: Andrew Yoo (WashU Developmental Biology)
  • April 17: Miranda Orr (Wake Forest University)

Click here for Zoom information (WUSTL Key required)

Full schedule of mini-series topics
2022/2023

Click below to view dates, speakers and talk titles.

Hormones in Brain Function and Disease
Organizers: John Cirrito, Rachel Hendrix, Hannah Edwards (WashU Neurology)
  • October 3: Carla Yuede (WashU Psychiatry) “Stress as a risk factor for sex-dependent differences in Alzheimer’s disease”
  • October 10: Steven Mennerick (WashU Psychiatry) “The impact of neurosteroids on the brain: Where is the therapeutic benefit?”
  • October 17: 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: Christina Gurnett (WashU Neurology) “High throughput testing of functional variants to improve patient selection for clinical trials”
  • November 7: Kristen Brennand (Yale School of Medicine) “Using Stem Cells to Explore the Genetics Underlying Brain Disease”
  • November 21: Tychele Turner (WashU Genetics) “Precision genomics as a key component for the future of precision medicine”
  • November 28: Carlos Cruchaga (WashU Psychiatry) “Cerebrospinal fluid proteogenomic analyses: Identification of novel proteins and therapeutic targets for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease”
  • IN-PERSON* – December 5: Kaitlin Samocha (Massachusetts General Hospital) “Contribution of rare variation to developmental disorders”
  • December 12: 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: Xiaoying Chen (Holtzman lab, WashU Neurology) “Mapping neuro-immune states in Alzheimer’s Disease”
  • January 23: David Gate (Northwestern University) “Cerebrospinal fluid immunity in healthy brain aging and neurodegenerative disease”
  • January 30: Marco Colonna (WashU Pathology & Immunology) “Different impacts on the CNS of TREM2 deficiencies in human and mouse”
  • February 6: 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)

Location: Holden Auditorium (Farrell LTC, Medical Campus) *unless noted

If you can’t be in person, you’re welcome to join us via Zoom. Links are available at the button below (WUSTL Key required).

  • February 27: Philip Williams (WashU Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences) “Metabolic and homeostatic predictors of retinal ganglion cell resilience”
  • March 6: 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: Jasmin Sponagel (Rubin lab, WashU Pediatrics) “Sex differences in brain tumor metabolism reveal sex-specific vulnerabilities to treatment”
  • VIRTUAL-only* – March 20: Camila Pulido (Weill Cornell Medicine) “How local metabolic balance defines synaptic strength”
Fundamental Mechanisms of Aging on Neurodegeneration
Organizer: Randall Bateman (WashU Neurology)

Location: Holden Auditorium (Farrell LTC, Medical Campus)

If you can’t be in person, you’re welcome to join us via Zoom. Links are available at the button below (WUSTL Key required).

  • March 27: Shin-Ichiro Imai (WashU Developmental Biology) “Achieving Productive Aging: The Intertissue Communication for Mammalian Aging and Longevity Control and Anti-Aging Intervention”
  • April 3: S. Kerry Kornfeld (WashU Developmental Biology)
  • April 10: Andrew Yoo (WashU Developmental Biology) “Recapitulation of age-dependent progression of neurodegeneration in directly reprogrammed human neurons”
  • April 17: Miranda Orr (Wake Forest University)

Gene Therapy and CNS disorders
Joint series with the Department of Developmental Biology
Organizer: Patricia Dickson (WashU Pediatrics)

Location: Holden Auditorium (Farrell LTC, Medical Campus)

If you can’t be in person, you’re welcome to join us via Zoom. Links will be available at the button below (WUSTL Key required).

  • May 1
  • May 8
  • May 15
  • May 22

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”
  • Date TBA: Presentations by winners of the 2023 Hope Center Awards

Seminars also are listed on the ONR Calendar.