CENTRE FOR MOTOR NEURONEDISEASE RESEARCH
Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences
3rd Macquarie
Neurodegeneration Meeting
28-29 OCTOBER 2020
AN EVENT FOR AUSTRALIAN NEUROSCIENTISTS TO SHOWCASE THEIR RESEARCH AND TO STIMULATE CONVERSATION AND FOSTER COLLABORATION TO DEVELOP TREATMENTS FOR DISEASES INCLUDING MOTOR NEURON DISEASE, ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE, FRONTOTEMPORAL DEMENTIA, PARKINSON’S DISEASE AND OTHER DEGENERATIVE BRAIN DISORDERS.
Our Sponsor
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Our Sponsor
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Our Sponsor
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Welcome
The Macquarie Neurodegeneration Meeting is an annual event hosted by the Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Macquarie University. The aim of this event is for Australian neuroscientists to showcase their research and to stimulate conversation and foster collaboration to develop treatments for diseases including motor neuron disease, Alzheimer’s disease, frontal temporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease and other degenerative brain disorders.
We welcome your involvement and hope the day provides inspiration and assists in fostering collaboration and connections in the neurodegeneration research community.
Yours Sincerely, The Conference Organising Committee
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research
Professor Julie Atkin
Co-Director
Professor Ian Blair
Co-Director
Christina Cassidy
Centre Administrator
Flora Cheng
Research Assistant
Dr Lyndal Henden
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Research
Dr Emily McCaan
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Research
Dr Prachi Mehta
Research Officer
Dr Sonam Parakh
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
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Program
Conference Program
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 28TH 2020
Opening
- 2:00 pm – 2:05 pm
- Webinar Opening
Welcome remarks by Professor Julie Atkin Co-Director
Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Macquarie University
- Session 1
- Chair – Dr Emily Don
- 2:05 pm – 2:35 pm
- Professor Neil Cashman
The Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Canada
TDP-43 Misfolding-Specific Antibodies in Treatment of TDP-43 Mediated Diseases (30min)
2:35 pm – 2:50pm 2:50 pm – 3:20 pm
Dr Sophia Luikinga The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Ambroxol as novel therapeutic intervention to improve motor function in a mouse model of ALS (15min)
Professor Gilles Guillemin Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Macquarie University
Overview of the involvement of the kynurenine pathway in neuroinflammatory diseases. Applications for prognosis and treatment (30min)
- 3: 20 pm – 3:35 pm
- Dr Emily McCann
Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Macquarie University
Implicating novel genetic variation in ALS through the analysis of disease discordant monozygotic twins (15min)
Break
3:35 pm –4:20 pm
Time to view Posters
https://www.mq.edu.au/research/research-centres-groups-and- facilities/healthy-people/centres/macquarie-university-centre- for-motor-neuron-disease-research/conference
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Program
- Session 2
- Chair – Dr Alison Hogan
- 4:20 pm – 4:35 pm
- Ms Sarah El-Wahsh
Faculty of Medicine and Health, Speech Pathology Department, The University of Sydney
Perspectives from the patient: communication symptoms, their impact, and speech pathology services in multiple sclerosis (15
min)
- 4:35 pm – 4:50 pm
- Dr Léonie Borne
Systems Neuroscience Group, School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Newcastle
Modes of covariation between cortical anatomy and multi- domain cognitive function in healthy mid-life adults predict mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s dementia (5min)
4:50 pm – 4.55 pm 4:55 pm – 5:00 pm
Dr Cindy Maurel Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Macquarie University
The unexplored effects of SUMOylation on TDP-43 aggregation and sub-cellular localization (5 min)
Dr Lyndal Henden Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Macquarie University
Identity by descent analysis links SOD1 familial and sporadic ALS cases (5 min)
Professor Flaviano Giorgini
5.00 pm – 5.30 pm
5.30 pm – 6.00 pm
Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester, UK
The kynurenine pathway and Huntington’s disease: from mechanisms to therapeutics (30 min)
Professor Ammar Al-Chalabi Kings College London, UK
Understanding the causes of motor neuron disease (30 min)
End Session – Reminder Posters available to view overnight on our website https://www.mq.edu.au/research/research-centres-groups-and-facilities/healthy- people/centres/macquarie-university-centre-for-motor-neuron-disease- research/conference
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Program
Conference Program
THUSDAY OCTOBER 29TH 2020
- Session 3
- Chair – Dr Shelley Forrest
9:00 am – 9:05 am
Welcome by Professor Ian Blair
Co-Director - Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Macquarie University
9:05 am – 9:20 am
9:20 am – 9:35am 9:35 am – 9: 50 am
Dr Rachel Atkinson from Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, University of Tasmania
New model approaches for understanding axon degeneration in ALS (15min)
Dr Mouna Haidar from The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne
Modelling cortical hyperexcitability in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis using chemogenetics (15min)
Ms Katherine Jane Robinson from Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Macquarie University
Pathological expansion of ATXN3 alters memory and anxiety-like behaviours in a mouse model of Machado Joseph Disease/Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 3 (15min)
9:50 am – 10:20 am 10:20 am – 10:25 am
Dr Arne Ittner from Dementia Research Centre, Macquarie University
Protein kinases and tau phosphorylation in memory (30min)
Mrs Barbora Fulopova from University of Tasmania
Differential patterns of cortical connectivity and beta amyloid deposition in APP/PS1 mice relative to ageing and the effects of midlife environmental enrichment (5min)
Break
10:25 am – 11:00 am
Time to view Posters
https://www.mq.edu.au/research/research-centres-groups-and- facilities/healthy-people/centres/macquarie-university-centre- for-motor-neuron-disease-research/conference
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Program
- Session 4
- Chair – Dr Jennifer Fifita
- 11:00 am – 11:30 am
- Professor Anna King from University of Tasmania
Blood biomarkers of neurodegeneration (30min)
- 11:30 am – 11:45 am
- Dr Lisa Oyston from Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney
Determining the pathogenicity of TBK1 missense variants in FTD and ALS (15min)
11:45 am – 11:50 am 11:50 am – 11:55 am
Ms Marina Ulanova from Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, UNSW
Magnetic nanoparticles as MRI contrast agents for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease (5min)
Associate Professor Alison Canty from Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, University of Tasmania
In vivo imaging of injured cortical axons reveals a rapid onset form of Wallerian degeneration (5min)
11:55 am – 12:00 pm 12:00 pm – 12:30 pm
Mr Andres Vidal-Itriago from Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Macquarie University
The missing link: Investigating the physiological traits of microglia during neurodegeneration (5min)
Professor Colin L Masters Laurette Professor of Dementia Research from The Florey Institute, The University of Melbourne
The molecular origins of Alzheimer’s disease: when does it start and what strategies for primary prevention? (30min)
Close of Presentations
- 12:30 pm – 12:35 pm
- Closing remarks by Professor Patrick McNeil
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Medicine and Health) and Executive Dean of Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Science, Macquarie University
12:35 pm – 12:45 pm
Prize Presentation
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Invited Speakers
Professor Ammar Al-Chalabi
PROFESSOR OF NEUROLOGY King's College London
Ammar Al-Chalabi is professor of neurology and complex disease genetics at King’s College London, consultant neurologist at King’s College Hospital and Deputy Editor, Brain. His research focuses on understanding the causes and modifiers of motor neuron disease and how these can be used to find effective treatments.
Professor Neil Cashman
PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE University of British Columbia
Dr. Neil Cashman is Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, where his basic research is focused on the role of protein misfolding in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He serves as a Director of the ALS Centre Clinic at G.F. Strong Hospital. He is a neurologist-neuroscientistentrepreneur who holds leadership positions in these three career domains.
Two central ideas inform his scientific and translational work: first, that neurodegenerative diseases are due to prion-like propagated protein misfolding, and second, that antibodies are well suited to specifically bind to misfolded proteins while sparing normal proteins from autoimmune attack. He originally applied these ideas to prion disease itself (Cashman et al, Cell 1990; Paramithiotis et al, Nat Med 2003).
He has applied the prion concept to developing novel immunotherapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). For ALS, he discovered that misfolded Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) acquires the prion-like ability to template misfolding of healthy SOD1 molecules (Grad et al, PNAS 2011), and that prion-like transmission of SOD1 misfolding can be
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Invited Speakers
propagated between cells by protein aggregates and exosomes (Grad et
al, PNAS 2014). For AD, He discovered Aβ oligomer-specific epitopes;
which will enable a safe and effective AD treatment (Silverman et al, ACS Chem Neurosci 2018, Gibbs et al Sci Rep 2019).
He is the Scientific Founder of three Canadian biotech companies, including ProMIS Neurosciences, where he currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer. Distinctions and awards for his research discoveries include citation by the CIHR for a "Medical Milestone" in 2003 for identifying a prion-specific epitope, Canada Research Chair Tier-1 Awards in 2005 and 2011, Fellowship of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2008, and his tenure as Scientific Director of PrioNET Canada (2005-2012) a Canadian Network of Centres of Excellence.
Professor Flaviano Giorgini
PROFESSOR OF NEUROGENETICS DEPARTMENT OF GENETICS AND GENOME BIOLOGY- COLLEGE OF LIFE SCIENCES University of Leicester
Prof Giorgini is a native of Indiana (USA) and pursued a BSc degree in Biological Sciences (with an emphasis in Genetics) at Purdue University. He obtained a MA degree in Molecular Genetics at Washington University in Saint Louis and a PhD in Genetics at the University of Washington in Seattle where he studied germ cell biology in the mouse. His interest in neurodegeneration research began as a Senior Fellow in the Department of Pharmacology (University of Washington), where he employed genetics and genomics approaches in yeast, mammalian cells and mice to identify and study genetic modifiers of Huntington’s disease. His work during this time, combined with his background in genetics and model organism biology, formed the basis for his current research in neurogenetics at the University of Leicester, where his laboratory studies the mechanisms underlying Huntington’s, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. He began as a Lecturer in the Department of Genetics in 2006, was promoted to a Readership in 2012, and has been Professor of Neurogenetics since 2015. During this time he has been funded by the Medical Research Council and several charitable foundations. Prof Giorgini is currently a member of the College of Experts for Parkinson’s UK, and has previously served as the Chair for the Scientific and Bioethics Advisory Committee of the European Huntington’s Disease Network (EHDN).
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Invited Speakers
Professor Gilles Guillemin
CENTRE FOR MOTOR NEURON DISEASE RESEARCH Macquarie University
Professor Gilles Guillemin has been working in the fields of Neuroimmunology and tryptophan metabolism for more than 25 years. He is the Co-founder of the MND and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Centre, The Co-founder of the Macquarie University Neurodegenerative Diseases Biobank and the Head of the Neuroinflammation group at Macquarie University.
Prof Guillemin’s team is one of the world’s leading research groups working on the involvement of the tryptophan catabolism (via the kynurenine pathway) in human neurodegenerative diseases. His team has demonstrated the importance of the KP in multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and motor neuron disease, which not only has opened numerous very promising research directions but has significant diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic potential.
With his microbiologist/virologist background, Prof Guillemin has recently been involved in several COVID-19 projects and research on the involvement of microorganisms various neurological diseases (PANDIS).
He is the President of the International Society for Tryptophan Research and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal for Tryptophan Research. He has published more than 250 peer reviewed scientific articles
Dr Arne Ittner
DEMENTIA RESEARCH CENTRE Macquarie University
Arne graduated in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland, in 2006 and received his PhD from ETH Zurich in 2010 for work on signal transduction by protein kinases. Arne moved then to University of Sydney, Australia, to work as postdoctoral fellow at the Brain and Mind Research Institute from 2011 to 2013. In 2013, he continued his post-doctoral work at University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), where he started his own research team on signal transduction and phosphorylation events in neurons in 2017. Arne was a postdoctoral fellow with the Alzheimer’s Australia Dementia Research Foundation in 2016. Arne’s team is currently supported by ARC and NHMRC. Arne is a NHMRC Emerging Leadership (EL2) fellow.
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Invited Speakers
Professor Anna King
WICKING DEMENTIA RESEARCH & EDUCATION CENTRE University of Tasmania
Professor Anna King is a neuroscientist, NHMRC boosting dementia research leadership fellow and Associate Director (research) at the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre at the University of Tasmania where she leads a team of researchers, technical staff and students. Prof King received training in molecular biology and biochemistry at Durham University (UK) and the Heart Research Institute (Australia), before completing her PhD in neuropathology of ALS at the University of Tasmania in 2008. Her research interests span cell to human studies and lie in understanding, detecting and preventing the adverse neuronal changes that result in the clinical symptoms of neurodegenerative disease with a focus on vulnerable structures such as the axon and synapse.
Professor Colin L Masters
LAUREATE PROFESSOR OF DEMENTIA RESEARCH - THE FLOREY INSTITUTE The University of Melbourne
Colin Masters has focused his career on research in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. His work over the last 35 years is widely acknowledged as having had a major influence on Alzheimer’s disease research world-wide, particularly the collaborative studies conducted with Konrad Beyreuther in which
they discovered the proteolytic neuronal origin of the Aβ amyloid
protein which causes Alzheimer’s disease. This work has led to the continued development of diagnostics and therapeutic strategies. More recently, his focus has been on describing the natural history of Alzheimer’s disease as a necessary preparatory step for therapeutic disease modification. Professor Masters is a Laureate Professor of Dementia Research at the Florey Institute, University of Melbourne and a consultant at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. His achievements have been recognised by the receipt of many international awards.
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Abstract Lists
Invited Speaker Abstracts
Understanding the causes of motor neuron disease (30 min)
Professor Ammar Al-Chalabi
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Kings College London, UK
Professor Neil Cashman
TDP-43 Misfolding-Specific Antibodies in
The Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia,
Canada
Treatment of TDP-43 Mediated Diseases (30min) 21 The kynurenine pathway and Huntington’s disease: from mechanisms to therapeutics (30 min)
Professor Flaviano Giorgini
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Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester, UK
Overview of the involvement of the kynurenine pathway in neuroinflammatory diseases. Applications for prognosis and treatment (30min)
Professor Gilles Guillemin
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Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research,
Macquarie University
Dr Arne Ittner
Protein kinases and tau phosphorylation in memory (30min)
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Dementia Research Centre, Macquarie
University
Professor Anna King
Blood biomarkers of neurodegeneration (30min)
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University of Tasmania
Professor Colin L Masters
The molecular origins of Alzheimer’s disease: when does it start and what strategies for primary prevention? (30min)
Laurette Professor of Dementia Research from The Florey Institute, The University of
Melbourne
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Abstract Lists
Abstracts (15 min)
Dr Rachel Atkinson Wicking
Dementia Research and Education Centre, University of Tasmania
New model approaches for understanding axon degeneration in ALS (15min)
