Programme

Sunday, 12 April

16:30-17:30	Arrival and registration
17:30	Welcome ceremony Introduction to the school, general information, and assignment of students to Agora teams
18:30	Welcome drinks followed by dinner

Monday, 13 April

9:00–9:45	Eric Newman A historical overview of astrocyte function [30 min + 15 min discussion]
9:45-10:30	Richard Robitaille Excitability of astrocytes: calcium signal [30 min + 10 min discussion]
10:30-11:00	Coffee break
11:00-11:45	Alfonso Araque Specific tools for astrocyte stimulation [30 min + 10 min discussion]
11:45-12:40	Student presentations • Astrocytes in brain disorders 1 Mario Agostini (Padua, Italy) Calcium dysregulation in Alzheimer's disease: its role in APP processing and neuron-astrocyte cross talk Laura Ratcliffe (Sheffield, UK) Investigating impaired IGF1 signalling in human astrocytes and its role in Alzheimer’s disease progression Tamar Smit (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Reactive astrocytes in Alzheimer’s disease Bart Jan van Dijk (Utrecht, Netherlands) Astrocyte response in delayed cerebral ischemia after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhages David Baker (Sheffield, UK) Gene expression profiling and functional studies of astrocytes in SOD1-related amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
12:40-14:00	Lunch break
14:00-14:30	Agora • Preparation (1) Introduction
14:30-15:15	Aude Panatier Time and space resolution, an important factor to study the morpho-function of the tripartite synapse [30 min + 10 min discussion]
15:15-16:10	Student presentations • Astrocytes in brain disorders 2 Didrik Dukefoss (Oslo, Norway) Volume dynamics of astroglial endfeet during cortical spreading depression Ana Rita Santos (Braga, Portugal) Astrocytic plasticity as a key mechanism underlying the pathophysiology of depression Minji Bang (Seoul, Republic of Korea) Effect of valproic acid on the development of astrocytes and neurons in neonatal rat brain Julia Müller (Bonn, Germany) Astrocytes as key players in epileptogenesis Giovanni Carriero (Lausanne, Switzerland) Astrocyte vesicular glutamate transporters (VGLUTs): are they part of the mechanisms underlying temporal lobe epilepsy?
16:10-16:30	Coffee break
16:30-17:15	Giorgio Carmignoto Methods to study gliotransmission [30 min + 10 min discussion]
17:15-18:00	Etienne Audinat Neuroinflammation: glia at the crossroads of the nervous and immune systems [30 min + 10 min discussion]
18:00-18:55	Student presentations • Astrocytes in brain disorders 3 Isabel Christie (London, UK) A critical role for purinergic signalling in neurovascular coupling Teresa Fernandez Zafra (Stockholm, Sweden) Validating commercial human embryonic spinal astrocytes as a model system Enrico Pracucci (Pisa, Italy) A fluorescent astrocytoma mouse model for intravital study of tumor growth and invasion of peritumoral tissues Urszula Skupio (Krakow, Poland) Glial transcriptional responses and behavioral effects of glucocorticoids in stress-related disorders Anna Hadjihambi (London, UK) The role of connexins in the pathogenesis of hepatic encephalopathy
20:00	Dinner

Tuesday, 14 April

9:00-9:45	Student presentations Purinergic Transmission and Astrocytes Marija Adžić (Belgrade, Serbia) The role of purinergic signaling and ecto-5’-nucleotidase in cultured rat astrocytes in the inflammation models Carmen Bohn (Homburg, Germany) Heterogeneity of purinergic Ca²⁺ signals in astrocytes Eva Carlsen (Copenhagen, Denmark) Purines released from astrocytes inhibit excitatory synaptic transmission in the ventral horn of the spinal cord Amy Shafqat (Bethesda, MA, USA) Effect of astroglial purinergic signaling on electrically induced locomotor-like activity in spinal networks
9:45-10:30	Tobias Stork Molecular, cellular, and genetic analyses of Drosophila glial subtypes [30 min + 10 min discussion]
10:30-11:00	Coffee break
11:00-11:45	Frank Kirchhoff Transgenic mouse models for astrocyte and NG2 glia research [30 min + 10 min discussion]
11:45-12:30	Student presentations • Astrocyte contribution to synaptic plasticity Valentin Langlais (Bordeaux, France) Astrocytic EphB3 receptor: a new partner in the regulation of postsynaptic NMDAR functions? Sara Mederos Crespo (Madrid, Spain) Optical tools for boosting astrocyte calcium signaling: Channelrhodopsin vs Melanopsin Claire Meunier (Paris, France) D-serine and glycine differentially control neurotransmission during visual cortex critical period Clare Reynell (Montreal, QC, Canada) Investigation of the role of astrocytes in defining synaptic plasticity in the barrel cortex
12:30-14:00	Lunch break
14:00-14:45	Gian Michele Ratto Imaging beyond calcium: in vivo quantitative measure of pH and chloride [30 min + 10 min discussion]
14:45-15:30	Elly Hol Astrocytes in brain disorders: tools to study molecular and functional changes [30 min + 10 min discussion]
15:30-16:35	Student presentations • Astrocyte contribution to synaptic plasticity Caitlin Durkee (Minneapolis, MN, USA) Properties and functional consequences of astrocyte-neuron signaling in the dorsolateral striatum Luigi Bellocchio (Bordeaux, France) Role of Mitochondrial activity in astrocytes in the regulation of brain functions: focus on GPCR signaling James Reynolds (London, UK) Investigating signal exchange between the extracellular matrix and astrocytes Olga Tyurikova (Nizhni Novgorod, Russian Federation) The regulation of glutamate spillover by astrocytic transporters Tara Deemyad (Ashburn, VA, USA) Calcium signaling in the astrocyte network promotes retroaxonal barrage firing in hippocampal interneurons Soulmaz Rahmani (Oslo, Norway) Regional heterogeneity of AQP4 and DAPC gene expression in the mouse brain
16:35-16:50	Coffee break
16:50-17:55	Student presentations • Astrocyte contribution to synaptic plasticity Corien Grit (Groningen, Netherlands) Ex-vivo analysis of astrocyte subpopulations Rebecca Ko (Vancouver, BC, Canada) Nitric oxide modulation of phosphodiesterase activity and cAMP levels in astrocytes Luca Pucci (Lausanne, Switzerland) The dopaminergic phenotype of frontal cortex astrocytes Linda Maria Requie (Padua, Italy) GABAergic signalling in striatal astrocytes Franziska Oschmann (Berlin, Germany) Mathematical modeling of glutamate induced calcium signals in astrocytes Ilaria Zamparo (Padua, Italy) The mitochondrial calcium uniporter controls skeletal muscle trophism in vivo
18:00-19:00	Agora • Preparation (2)
20:00	Dinner

Wednesday, 15 April

9:00-9:45	Gertrudis Perea Astrocyte role in sensory information processing in vivo [30 min + 10 min discussion]
9:45-10:30	Elly Hol Are reactive astrocytes the cause of dementia in Alzheimer's disease? [30 min + 10 min discussion]
10:30-11:00	Coffee break
11:00-11:45	Alfonso Araque Astrocyte modulation of hippocampal plasticity [30 min + 10 min discussion]
11:45-12:30	Aude Panatier The tripartite synapse at the nanoscale [30 min + 10 min discussion]
12:30-14:00	Lunch break
14:00	Departure to Ravenna Sightseeing and guided tours, followed by dinner Return to Bertinoro after dinner

Thursday, 16 April

9:00-9:45	Giovanni Marsicano Different roles of astroglial CB1 receptors [30 min + 10 min discussion]
9:45-10:30	Tobias Stork Astrocyte morphogenesis and neuron-astrocyte interactions during neural circuit assembly in Drosophila [30 min + 10 min discussion]
10:30-11:00	Coffee break
11:00-11:45	Eric Newman Glial cell regulation of retinal blood flow in health and disease [30 min + 10 min discussion]
11:45-12:30	Paola Bezzi Role of astrocytes in the pathophysiology of 22q11 deletion syndrome [30 min + 10 min discussion]
12:30-14:00	Lunch break
14:00-14:45	Etienne Audinat Reactive astrocytes and microglia in epilepsy [30 min + 10 min discussion]
14:45-15:15	Igor Del Vecchio Experience the next level of multiphoton microscopy with Olympus FVMPE-RS [25 min + 5 min discussion]
15:15-19:00	Agora • Preparation (3) [with coffee]
20:00	Dinner

Friday, 17 April

9:00-9:40	Min Cho (Senior Editor, Nature Neuroscience) Publishing 101 in Nature Neuroscience [30 min + 10 min discussion]
9:40-10:20	Paola Bezzi Astrocytes may be behind the pathogenesis of autism [30 min + 10 min discussion]
10:20-11:00	Richard Robitaille Role of glial cells in peripheral nervous system disorders [30 min + 10 min discussion]
11:00-11:30	Coffee break
11:30-12:10	Frank Kirchhoff What have ballet dancing and acute brain injury in common? Astrocytes! [30 min + 10 min discussion]
12:10-12:50	Giorgio Carmignoto Exploring the role of astrocytes in brain disorders: the epilepsy case [30 min + 10 min discussion]
13:00-14:30	Lunch break
14:30-19:30	Agora 1, 2, 3 [with coffee]
19:30-20:00	General discussion, Concluding Remarks, Questionnaires
20:30	Farewell dinner

Saturday, 18 April

Departure

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