Maternal cannabis use is a growing public health concern, yet the long-term effects of prenatal cannabis exposure remain elusive. Our understanding of how prenatal cannabis exposure affects the brain and behavior is critically informed by preclinical animal models that capture core components of human cannabis use. To this end, our laboratory and others have recently developed more translational models of cannabis use that have potential to provide unprecedented insight into the protracted effects of cannabis exposure during sensitive developmental stages.  In this presentation, I will describe recent data from our laboratory using a novel model of cannabis vapor self-administration in […]

Professor George Augustine –  Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Talk Title: "Synapses and synaptic circuits in health and disease" Professor Lim Kah Leong – Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Talk Title: "Neuroprotective and neurorestorative strategies for Parkinson’s disease" Professor Nagaendran Kandiah –  Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Talk Title: "Fluid biomarker and neuroimaging profile of mild cognitive impairment in Southeast Asians" Zoom option if unable to attend in person Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 99412 188589 Passcode: 188589

Zoom option if unable to attend in person Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 99412 188589 Passcode: 188589 Seeing is believing and thus, optical imaging techniques are extremely useful to study brain structure and function. I will present two projects aimed at providing the neuroscience community with better imaging instrumentation. In the first part, I will introduce the mesoSPIM ( http://mesospim.org/ ), an open-source light-sheet microscope that is optimized for fast imaging of large cleared tissue samples at 5-7 µm isotropic resolution. Since 2015, the mesoSPIM evolved from a crude prototype into a highly capable instrument and we […]

Zoom option if unable to attend in person: Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 99412 188589 Passcode: 188589 Dr. Michael Kobor is a Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and The Edwin S.H. Leong UBC Chair in Healthy Aging—a UBC President’s Excellence Chair. He began his academic studies in his native Germany, before coming to Canada to complete his PhD in Medical Genetics under Dr. Jack Greenblatt at the University of Toronto. He then completed postdoctoral training as a Human Frontier Science Program Fellow with Dr. Jasper Rine at the […]

Zoom option if unable to attend in person: Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 91512 289258 Passcode: 289258 Innate immunity plays a pivotal role in the pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis (MS) and important cell types involved in this process are CNS resident monocytes (microglia) and blood-derived macrophages. Chronic CNS inflammation in the MS lesion is maintained, in part, with iron-laden pro-inflammatory microglia/macrophages (m/M) at the rim of chronic active MS lesions. These lesions are felt to contribute to a more aggressive phenotype of the disease; thus, represents a novel treatment target to reduce disease progression in MS. Identification […]

Zoom option if unable to attend in person: Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 91512 289258 Passcode: 289258 Dr. Oka will discuss how innate instinct to consume water and salt is regulated through body-brain interactions.

Zoom option if unable to attend in person: Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 91512 289258 Passcode: 289258 Objectives: 1) Neural stem cells build and regenerate the brain in part by forming oligodendrocytes, the myelinating cells of the central nervous system 2) Endogenous neural stem cells can be engaged in mouse models of neurodegenerative disorders for brain remyelination 3) Neurodegenerative disorders may have a neurodevelopmental origin, and neurodevelopmental disorders may have a neurodegenerative component.

Zoom option if unable to attend in person: Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 91512 289258 Passcode: 289258 Decision-making is an unobservable cognitive process. This makes it challenging to investigate the underlying neuronal mechanisms. This lecture will discuss how techniques borrowed from the brain-machine interface field, such as decoding population activity and closed-loop control, can be used to understand how cognitive processes such as decision-making are implemented at the neuronal level. This approach could also lead to the development of novel devices for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders that involve impaired decision-making.

Dr. Annie Ciernia: "Mechanisms of Peripheral Lipopolysaccharide Induced Brain Inflammation" Dr. Paul van Donkelaar: "Characterizing tau pathology in survivors of intimate partner violence-related traumatic brain injury" Zoom option if unable to attend in person: Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 91512 289258 Passcode: 289258