NEWSLETTER 29_12P.qxd:Mise en page 1 25/11/14 16:03 Page 1 Issue November 2014 Neurex Newsletter n°29 Strasbourg Freiburg Basel Contents Edito Edito During the recent neurogenomic training at the LSTF Basel, the Report & News . P. 2/3 geneships’ leader Affymetrix company described the recent tools developed to explore transcriptomics. On the 1 st and 2 nd of December, scientists from Portrait . P. 4/5 companies will interact with academics to address the fundamental basis .Prof Ilka Diester .BLBT, University of Freiburg and clinical relevance of fighting neuroinflammation/rebuilding myelin as an additional therapeutic strategy to the immunomodulatory treatments of Mul - Report & News . P. 6/7 tiple Sclerosis. On Dec 4 th , scientists from Roche will interact with researchers 1st Web-Conference . P. 8/9 from Neurex and all over the world during a first web-conference on Transla - .Translational Imaging tional Imaging for Psychopharmacology. In Strasbourg, the company Axilum for Psychopharmacology Robotics was created in 2011 to design a robot to automate TMS treatment. Portrait These initiatives illustrate the growing interactions of academic researchers & Farewell Meeting . P. 10/12 with industry, which should undoubtedly profit to the enhancement of trans - .Prof Heinrich Reichert, UniBasel .Nervous System development lational research and favour drug & neurotechnology development. Such in Invertebrates positive consequences of networking were among the aims of Prof Heinrich Reichert in 2001 when he raised the first important source of financial support Portrait . P. 13/17 .Axilum Robotics, Strasbourg which launched the development of Neurex. More than ten years later, we must acknowledge that this challenge was a real success for the benefit of Meeting . P. 18/19 the community. See you the 23 rd of January 2015 for a farewell symposium .Multiple sclerosis: Zghting neuroin\ammation & rebuilding in his honor during which we will celebrate his brilliant career and devotion the myelin to Neuroscience. Mark your calendar ! I P.P. Coming events . P. 20 Info & links . P. 20 NEWSLETTER 29_12P.qxd:Mise en page 1 25/11/14 16:03 Page 2 Report FROSTY SHOWER FOR A HOT CAUSE Obviously, the weather was more generous back in September when members of the lab of Luc Dupuis in Strasbourg decided to take up the coolest challenge of the moment and dumped buckets (or more precisely, lab polystyrene boxes) of ice water on their heads. But still, they did it. If the Inserm U1118 lab decided to take part to this now world- renowned action, it is not only because they are brave and fearless but also because they know more than anyone that funding for research on ALS is necessary. Luc Dupuis has been working for more than 15 years on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a deadly disease which represents the 3 rd neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer and Parkinson.“In France, the number of patients dying from this disease is very close to the number of persons dying in a car crash” indicates Luc. Despite these dramatic figures, the disease and its mechanisms are still poorly known and, prior to the chal - lenge, public awareness of the disease was relatively limited. This is why the group of Luc Dupuis had decided to take up the challenge and proudly participate to this “collective and smart” campaign raised for a cause they believe in. After the Ice Bucket Challenge went viral on social media, charitable donations to the ALS associations soared. Along with them, a number of criticisms have arisen accusing the action to be self-congratulatory and promote waste of water. For Luc Dupuis, these criticisms are not grounded and he suggests to the persons who take up the challenge “to consider the ice water as a metaphor of an ALS diagnosis” with a life expectancy of 2-3 years, a gradual paralysis leading to a respiratory failure and virtually no possibility of curative treatment available. The video of the Ice Bucket Challenge of the Inserm U1118 lab is available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESBW - KaNFyv4 . For this special occasion, members of the lab were wea - ringT-shirts customized with logo of the organizations funding their research, NeuroTime and Neurex among others. I D.B. Images: courtesy of Yannick von Grabowiecki NEWSLETTER 29_12P.qxd:Mise en page 1 25/11/14 16:03 Page 3 News 03 Cell specification or the hidden face of plasticity Stem cells play a fundamental role in building the harmonious archi - tecture of our organism.Their high plas - ticity raises questions on the mechanisms involved in the control of the absolute number of differentiated cells, on the ratio between the cell types that make our organs and finally Glial cells, the caretakers of the nervous then the neuron/ glial cell ratio is altered on the way by which distinct cell types system, are in fixed number and depend and some cells remain blocked in an in - are maintained on a lasting scale. on the Glide/ Gcm transcription factor, termediate state of neuroglial differen - Some answers to these questions have which dictates the choice of identity bet - tiation. been obtained using the Drosophila ween neuron and glial cells within the genetic model. neural stem cell population. Such behavior strangely reminds us of the one of cancer cells.This analysis thus Angela Giangrande’s team (IGBMC) just brings a new perspective on the bases of demonstrated the existence of a tempo - cell specification, as well as on the physio- ral sequence of regulatory loops that pathological mechanisms of metastatic acts just like a detonator with a timer. processes. This work was just presented Glide/Gcm controls its own level of ex - in an article published in the prestigious pression. As soon as the threshold ne - review Nature Communication. I A.G. cessary to trigger gliogenesis is reached, one of its targets starts to degrade Contact: Glide/Gcm in order to allow lineage pro - Angela Giangrande gression and the stable differentiation of Département Génomique the glial cell. Fonctionnelle et Cancer IGBMC - 1, Rue Laurent Fries Moreover, the study shows that, if this BP 10142 - Illkirch 67404 « feed for ward » mechanism is deficient, C. U. Strasbourg - France NEWSLETTER 29_12P.qxd:Mise en page 1 25/11/14 16:03 Page 4 Portrait Welcome to... Most animals are blessed with the abi - Perturbation resistant neural lity to move seemingly effortlessly through their networks in motor cortex environment. What looks simple on the first Motor cortex is the main output structure of the glance, is based on complex neural circuits.The mammalian brain. What goes out to spinal cord simplest versions are already developed in in - will influence our movements. To prevent invo - vertebrates and mainly rely on reflexes while luntary movements, neural activity in motor cor - more involved patterns are emerging in verte - tex is under tight control of local microcircuits brates and climax in mammals. The more auto - which determine whether a signal propagates matic movements can be generated with basic further and eventually evokes a movement. How and well conserved circuits across the mam - these control mechanisms are realized is not malian realm. However, if planning of complex entirely clear. How does motor cortex deal with Prof. Ilka Diester movements with specific timing is required, the inappropriate input and how does it overcome who recently (Oct. 2014) neocortex comes into play. It is this brain struc - disruptions? To what extent does the spread of joined the Brain Links-Brain Tools ture which lies in the focus of Ilka Diester’s re - activation depend on the particular network Research Centre of the University search group. In particular, the lab investigates structure of the brain, or the connections bet - of Freiburg. subsections of the cortex which are associated ween nerve cells? How do the mechanisms Zoom on her research interest. with movement planning and generation differ between species? (motor cortex) or cognitive tasks (prefrontal An adequate experimental setup in combina - cortex). For that, modern approaches like high tion with a model of network dynamics is nee - dimensional neural recordings with multi-elec - ded to investigate these questions. To address trode arrays and optogenetic manipulation these questions, Prof. Diester’s lab uses multi- techniques are combined with behavioral as - electrode arrays for the recordings of neural says which allow establishing a correlative and population responses and optogenetic and causal role of brain areas, pathways and neural electrical stimulation methods for the stimula - Ilka Diester is a professor for subpopulations. At the heart of this approach tion of neural populations. optophysiology, a new field in neuroscience, stands the key technique «optogenetics». Opto - 3D reconstruction of motor behavior allows at the University Freiburg where she conducts genetics is based on light sensitive membrane capturing and parameterizing the movements research on the neural correlates of move - proteins – so called opsins – derived from mi - and correlating these parameters with the re - ment control. In October 2014 she left the croorganisms like algae or archaebacterial. cording and stimulation signals. In order to Ernst Strüngmann Institute in Cooperation With genetic tricks, these opsins can be inte - organize the obtained results, a theoretical fra - with Max Planck Society for Neuroscience in grated into mammalian cells and act there as mework is required which allows filling in data Frankfurt am Main where she was head of the ion channels or pump which open upon illumi - bit by bit and thus systematically solving the «Optogenetics group» in the department of nation with the correct wavelength. This makes puzzle. Small-world-like networks have been Pascal Fries. Her lab aims at understanding the neurons controllable with light: they can get chosen as such a framework due to their fea - how motor control arises from neural activity activated or silenced.