Elsevier, The Boulevard, Langford Lane,

Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, UK

IBRONEWS
w w w. i b r o . i n f o Vo l u m e 3 5 2 0 0 7

© IBRO International Brain Research Organization

MELBOURNE HOSTS In this issue:

IBRO CONGRESS Funding

Research Fellows
Alumni
2500 participants attend News and Events
A smart cocktail party and a prize-giving ceremony for local young Brain
Bee winners in the vast display rooms of the Melbourne Museum brought The Regions
to an end the non-stop whirl of events, both neuroscientific and social, for Neuroscience Schools
participants at the 7th IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience held in
Melbourne, Australia, July 12-17.

The Australian Neuroscience Society and the IBRO 2007 Local Organizing
Committee together created a congress brim-full of events: plenary
lectures, symposia, special interest forums and poster sessions, as well as
Science and
20 satellite symposia dotted around Australia and as far afield as Taiwan.
Around 2500 participants from 63 countries attended the congress, which neuroscience
was held in the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre on the banks
of the Yarra River. For six days they were treated to a panoply of slickly run under the sun:
sessions featuring leading international neuroscientists. Evenings brought
receptions, an elegant gala dinner (complete with opera singers and jazz
band) and an alumni reunion. For those who were able to drag themselves
SHAMS in the UAE
away from neuroscience, daily tours included a trip to Phillip Island to SHAMS, the Arabic word for ‘sun’, is also
watch penguins, a visit to a cattle farm, a ride along the Great Ocean Road the acronym for the Sheikh Hamdan Award
and a visit to Yarra Valley wineries. for Medical Sciences, and the title of the
Journal of Medical Sciences published by
At the opening ceremony on July 13, Prof. George Paxinos, President of this Al-Maktoum Foundation.
the IBRO 2007 Organizing Committee, welcomed participants to the
congress. He was followed by the Hon. John Brumby, Treasurer and The Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum
Minister for State and Regional Development, Prof. Fred Mendelsohn, Melbourne, venue for the 2007 IBRO World Congress Award for Medical Sciences awarded the
Secretary General, IBRO 2007 World Congress, Prof. Masao Ito, Honorary 2006 winners (the fourth cycle of the Award,
President, IBRO 2007 World Congress, and Prof. Albert Aguayo, President Special interest forums ranged from the IBRO Alumni Symposium established eight years ago) at The Fourth
of IBRO. 'Molecular and system neurobiology in development and affective Dubai International Conference for Medical
disorders' (four IBRO alumni were the speakers), 'Animals in research' Sciences, held in Dubai, December 19-21,
Each day plenary sessions were followed by concurrent symposia, with (presented by IBRO Animals in Research Committee), through 2006. The topics of the Award, on which the
poster sessions at lunchtimes and special interest forums towards the end 'Parkinsons’s Disease', 'Current Australian research into spinal cord conference usually focuses, were
of the day. In all there were eight plenaries, including 'Aquaporin water injury', 'Australian pioneers of the neurosciences' to 'Neuroscience and Neurological diseases, Cytokines and
channels: from atomic structure to clinical medicine' (Peter Agre), addiction: evidence for informed public policy' and 'Training in Therapy of diseases, Pathogenesis of
'Functional studies at a single excitatory or inhibitory brain synapse' neuroscience research'. hypertension and Biology of aging, thus
(Norio Akaike), 'The neuropsychobiology of pain' (Herta Flor), 'Spike Bids for hosting the 8th IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience in 2011 are demonstrating special attention to topics in
timing-dependent plasticity: from synapse motor control' (Simon Gandevia). under way: the winner will find Melbourne’s footsteps hard to follow. which brain sciences play a central or
contributory role.

IBRO WELCOMES NEW SECRETARY-GENERAL The winner of the Grand Hamdan

International Award in the field of molecular
Marina Bentivoglio pledges support and training in poorer countries and cellular pathology of neurological
disorders was Prof. Colin Masters
Marina Bentivoglio, Professor of Histology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Verona, Italy, began her three-year term as IBRO President in January (University of Melbourne, Australia). The
this year. Her pledge at the beginning of her term was to prioritize support for young scientists, especially those in developing countries, as has been winner of the Hamdan Award for Medical
IBRO’s priority in its activities over the last decade. Prof. Bentivoglio is determined to reinforce and expand IBRO’s initiatives with special emphasis on Research excellence in the topic ‘Biology of
helping young investigators from countries with limited resources to establish research Aging’ was Prof. Christian Hass (University
facilities when they return home after training abroad. of Munich, Germany), whose lecture also
Prof. Bentivoglio recognizes that times are difficult and trying to promote neuroscience focused on the molecular clock in
worldwide is a very difficult task, but she has found great pleasure in having the Alzheimer’s disease. Prof. Charles Anthony
opportunity to get to know young people who are interested in neuroscience; she is Dinarello (University of Colorado, Denver,
proud of being IBRO’s ambassador as she travels around the world introducing IBRO and CO, USA) was awarded for his work on
its activities. ‘Cytokines in Pathogenesis and Therapy of
Prof. Bentivoglio also realizes the importance of training investigators for research on Diseases’, and Prof. Murray Esler (Alfred
regional health problems, such as the 'neglected' diseases of the nervous system that Hospital, Melbourne, Australia) for
afflict so many of the poor countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. This can only be ‘Pathology of Hypertension’.
achieved, Prof. Bentivoglio says, through international exchange and collaboration
between the basic and clinical neurosciences and raising awareness of health problems The Award also includes other categories
that affect millions of people around the world. Indeed, IBRO is realizing this goal through Continued on page 8
its programmes: it provides fellowships and travel grants; its neuroscience schools and
courses having increased sixfold over the last five years; and the number of its alumni is
over 2000.
IBRO acknowledges the importance of public education in many of its activities and
Valsa Eapen, Abu Adem, Marina Bentivoglio, Najib Al Khala, Raj
Kalaria at IBRO-UAE School, Al-Ain
publications. Public education, Prof. Bentivoglio stresses, constitutes in particular a
significant accomplishment: the Brain Campaign, a joint venture between IBRO, SfN IBRO web site
(Society for Neuroscience), DABI (Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives) and EDAB (European
Dana Alliance for the Brain), funds many neuroscience events annually around the world in its aim to promote public understanding of the brain. www.ibro.info
In the first 12 months, working with IBRO President Albert Aguayo, Prof. Bentivoglio hopes to develop and expand collaboration with both IBRO’s
Affiliated Organizations (at present totalling 83) and other organizations to bring IBRO’s programmes to their full potential and at the same time to prevent
the potentially disastrous effects of the ‘brain drain’ on world science. Prof. Bentivoglio was interviewed in SfN’s Neuroscience Quarterly earlier this year
(http://www.ibro.info/Pub_News_Display.asp?News_Id=2023).

IBRO says farewell to its President and Secretary-General ... page 8

IBRO’s worldwide schools expand! … page 7
one
IBRONEWS 2007

IBRO’S FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES 2008-2009

Fellowships & Travel Grants Programme Symposia & Workshops

Chair: Harry W. M. Steinbusch
All applications to be submitted on-line http://funding.ibro.info
IBRO Research Fellowships 2009
Application Deadline: 1 March 2008
The IBRO Fellowship Programme aims to foster quality neuroscience, especially in the less developed
and less well-funded countries. It welcomes high-quality scientists (under the age of 45) from diverse
geographic and scientific areas wishing to broaden the scope of their training in neuroscience by
working one month to one year abroad in good laboratories. (US/Canada Region excluded.) The
funding for a 12-month fellowship is Euros 33,300.
An Outstanding IBRO Fellowship of an additional Euros 4,200 (total Euros 37,500) will be awarded
to one of the two particularly promising candidates of the year's intake.
A John G. Nicholls IBRO Fellowship of an additional Euros 4,200 (total Euros 37,500) will be awarded to
one of the two particularly promising candidates of the year's intake. The fellowship was created in honour
of Dr John G. Nicholls, the founding Director of the IBRO Visiting Lecture Team Programme (VLTP).
IBRO Travel Grants 2008-9
IBRO offers Travel Grants for high-quality neuroscientists, especially from countries with restricted
resources to present their findings at international neuroscience meetings. (US/Canada Region
excluded.) Funding for travel will be up to Euros 1,250 per award.
Travel Grants for six-month period:
July-December 2008: Deadline March 1, 2008
January-June 2009: Deadline September 1, 2008
July-December 2009: Deadline March 1, 2009
Chair: Hee-Sup Shin
IBRO invites requests for partial funding of Symposia and Workshops on important topics in
neuroscience with the aim particularly of encouraging neuroscience research and scholarship in
regions of the world with limited funds for science. Participants should represent the international
neuroscience community as well as regional interests. Meetings should have a clear focus on a
particular topic. Preference will be given to activities that include younger scientists and offer training
for scientists from countries in which little money is available for research or teaching.
Symposia should deal with topics of key interest, specialized or broad, with background talks to help
those unfamiliar with the material, as well as accounts of current research.
Workshops are more technical and practical in orientation. A major portion of the programme should
involve discussion, practical teaching of techniques and the presentation of concepts and controls
necessary for experimental work. Workshops that bring useful techniques and donate permanent
equipment to less funded countries are encouraged.
Deadlines for receiving proposals are February 1 and September 1 each year.
Symposia & Workshops
Programme: New Chair
Hee-Sup Shin, of the Center for Neural Science, Korea Institute
of Science and Technology, Seoul, Korea, was appointed Chair
of IBRO’s Symposia & Workshops Programme January 1, 2007.
Ken Muller, University of Miami School of Medicine,
Miami, FL, USA, was his predecessor.
Hee-Sup Shin

SfN/IBRO International Travel Fellowship 2008

Application Deadline: 1 March 2008
Up to 30 SfN/IBRO Travel Fellowships of around Euros 1,500 each are offered to neuroscientists
IBRO Return Home Fellowship
under 35 from the resource-restricted countries (those defined by the World Bank as low, lower-
Chair: F. H. Lopes da Silva
middle, or upper-middle income) of the five IBRO regions (Africa, Asian/Pacific, Central and Eastern
Europe, Latin America, Western Europe). The list of eligible countries can be found at
The IBRO Return Home Programme aims to enable young researchers from less developed countries
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Resources/CLASS.XLS. Candidates under 35
who have studied neuroscience in advanced research centres abroad to return home to continue an
who wish to attend SfN 2008 should apply for the SfN/IBRO International Travel Fellowship. Those
internationally valid scientific activity in brain research. As the funds currently available are limited,
over 35 should apply for the IBRO Travel Grant. Note that this fellowship is not available to
the programme will be aimed primarily at those scientists who have worked abroad while receiving
candidates from US/Canada Region to attend the 38th SfN Annual Meeting. The applicant should be
IBRO fellowships, travel grants or other IBRO-related stipends.
the first author of an abstract to be presented at the annual meeting. A copy of the abstract
Information: http://funding.ibro.info
submitted to SfN for a poster or a platform presentation is required.
Deadline for 2008: 20 June 2008

IBRO Studentships 2009

Application Deadline: 1 March 2008
IBRO offers five Studentships of Euros 8,340 per award to support students from less developed and
less well-funded countries to take up projects of up to six months, contributing towards their degree
(PhD, MPhil, or even BSc) in good overseas laboratories with facilities and training not available in
their home countries. (US/Canada Region excluded.)
Information on all IBRO funding: http://funding.ibro.info
Return Home Programme
gaining momentum
IBRO’s Return Home Programme (RHP) is now in its second year. Its goal is to transform a Brain
Drain from less to more developed countries into a Brain Gain in the reverse direction. After
many years of IBRO’s training initiatives, the time is right to help establish more neuroscience
laboratories in developing countries. The RHP grant is intended to help postdoctoral fellows
establish independent labs in their home countries and is aimed primarily at those scientists
who have worked abroad while receiving IBRO fellowships, travel grants or other IBRO-related
stipends. Each awardee receives US$15,000 to spend on equipment and supplies. Only two

Symposia & Workshops Programme
events 2006-7
The Symposia & Workshops Programme
supported many neuroscience events around
the world over the last year, including Kenya, Sri
Lanka, India, China, Argentina, Chile, Portugal,
Italy, Zambia, Russia, Slovenia, Mexico and USA.
Some extracts: Kolkata Neuroscience
Workshop: Organizing Secretary K. P.
Mohanakumar reports: The workshop,
Neurochemical Techniques for Neuroscientists,
held at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology
(IICB), Jadavpur, Kolkata, India, December 29,
2006-January 7, 2007, was conducted under
the auspices of the Society for Neurochemistry
(India) and IICB. There were 25 candidates (six
from abroad and 19 from India), including one
each from Bangladesh, Malaysia, Iran and two
from Sri Lanka. Faculty were local and from
abroad. Techniques taught at the workshop
included: stem cell culture; primary culture of
astrocytes and neural cells; mitochondrial
assays: purification of mitochondria; gene
polymorphism in neurological disorders;
neurotransmitter assay; neurotransmitter
receptor; intracellular
calcium monitoring.
In the lab, Kolkata Workshop
fellowships were awarded in the first year of the RHP due to limited funds. This year IBRO
increased the funding by one and we are pleased to announce that the Society for Neuroscience
of the USA (SfN) has agreed to add an additional fellowship, bringing the total awards to four.
More details can be found in the programmes section of the IBRO web site
http://funding.ibro.info.
PENS Programme for European
Neuroscience Schools:
an IBRO-FENS collaboration
Chair: Susan Sara
For details of 2008 schools visit the PENS web site http://fens.mdc-berlin.de/pens
Neurotoxicity Society Meeting, Pucón, Chile: Organizing Committee. There were 30 invited
The III Neurotoxicity Society Meeting, international speakers from the USA, Canada,
Neurochemical Mechanisms for UK, France, Denmark, Germany, Poland,
Neurodegenerative Disorders, and the course, Australia, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and 11
Neurochemical and Cellular Mechanisms of national speakers (Chile), 43 graduate students
Neuronal Damage: Therapeutical Approaches, from Chile, other Latin American countries
were held in Pucón, Chile, March 23-25, 2007, including, Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay,
writes Juan Segura-Aguilar, President of the
Continued on page 3

two
 REPORTS FROM IBRO’S FELLOWS AND ALUMNI
Alumni speak at Alumni Symposium,
IBRO Congress, Melbourne
An IBRO Alumni Symposium ‘Molecular and
system neurobiology in development and
affective disorders’ was held on the second day
of the IBRO Congress, held in Melbourne,
Australia, July 12-17, 2007. Four alumni spoke
about their research, some of which had been
carried out while on IBRO fellowships abroad.
Chaired by Secretary-General Marina
Bentivoglio and Alumni Committee Chair Susan
J. Sara, the symposium began with Veronica
Palma (Center for Genomics of the Cell, Faculty
of Science, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile)
talking about the ‘Role of sonic hedgehog
(SHH)/GLI signalling during midbrain
development’. Azaz Omrani (Iran; SISSA, Italy)
spoke on ‘Tonic GABA A-mediated
conductance selectively enhances the
glutamatergic drive of principal cells in the
developing rat hippocampus’. Ewelina Knapska
(Poland; Dept. of Psychology, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA) gave a synopsis
of her research on ‘Towards understanding
social aspects of fear: an animal model’. Finally,
Ben A. Chindo (Nigeria; University of Otago,
New Zealand) spoke on ‘Potential values of
Ben Chindo Ficus platyphylla in the treatment of
neuropsychiatric disorders’.
The session was followed by a social evening that was co-sponsored by the Post-doctoral
Association of the Howard Florey Institute.
Singaporean neuroscientist
attends SfN meeting in Atlanta
Eng-Tat Ang, a research scientist in the Dept. of Hematology,
Singapore General Hospital, won an SfN-IBRO International
Travel Fellowship to attend the SfN meeting in Atlanta, GA, USA,
October 2006: “The experience of attending a meeting graced
by 25,000 participants left me feeling that there is really much to
do and a need to collaborate with one another. That way, things
can be facilitated and solutions to problems found. As a trained
physical therapist, my research goals are clinically oriented. I
have had considerable exposure to clinical problems in relation
to neurological diseases affecting both the CNS and PNS,
including stroke, Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, and
Eng-Tat Ang
peripheral neuropathy. At the National University of Singapore, I
gained the necessary expertise to carry out histological and
behavioral studies on relevant animal models for CNS disorder such as stroke. At the University of
Fribourg, Switzerland, I worked with transgenic and knockout mice for PNS disorders such as
Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease; I also worked at the Dept. of Hematology, Singapore Hospital on the
function of blood and how this may impact the nervous system.”
Continued from page 2
Peru and the USA with poster presentations and Therapeutical Approaches, organized by the
six oral presentations. The meeting consisted of Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile with 38
(i) 36 25-min. presentations followed by 5-min. participants; (viii) the biennial meeting of the
discussions; (ii) 45 poster presentations; (iii) one Neurotoxicity Society.
plenary lecture; (iv) six oral presentations by 4th Conference on Epileptogenesis,
graduate students; (v) four guided poster Pisa, Italy: The aim of the conference, May 23-
sessions; (vi) two clinical round tables 26, 2007, was to present a comprehensive and
(Alzheimer’s and Parkinson´s disease), updated overview on ‘epileptogenesis’, the
comprising the presentation of differential phenomenon by which a normal tissue becomes
diagnosis and treatment, followed by general epileptic. The conference, with 26 speakers and
discussions; (vii) a PhD course, Neurochemical 36 students, was introduced by a plenary
& Cellular Mechanisms of Neuronal Damage: lecture on CNS synaptic plasticity by Prof. L.
Maffei (Pisa, Italy), who illustrated the molecular
mechanism underlying the plasticity of the visual
cortex in rodents. The five sessions focused on:
1) channelopathies leading to epilepsy; 2)
developmental alterations leading to epilepsy; 3)
new therapeutic approaches, alternatives to the
use of classical antiepileptic drugs; (4) seizure-
induced brain damage and repair strategies; (5)
the contribution of glial cell in circuit
reorganization and seizure generation. The IBRO
funding enabled the organizers to allocate seven
fellowships to PhD students and post-docs from
Participants, Neurotoxicity Society Meeting, Pucón less-favoured countries.
IBRO Research Fellow works on
SHBG in British Columbia
Thierry Charlier, after completing his doctoral
thesis under the supervision of Prof. Jacques
Balthazart, Center for Cellular and Molecular
Neurobiology, University of Liège, Belgium, took
up his IBRO fellowship in 2006, collaborating
with Prof. G. Hammond, Dept. of Obstetrics and
Gynecology and Dr K. Soma, Dept of
Psychology and Zoology, University of British
Columbia, Canada: "The goal of this research
was to characterize the neural sex hormone
binding globulin (SHBG) protein and gene in
songbirds, which provide an excellent model to
study the modulation of steroid action in the
brain. We first aimed to define the avian SHBG
sequence based on the extensive sequence
database available for the chicken and the
zebra finch. The sequencing of zebra finch
genome is currently being undertaken and, we
hope, will give us more information about avian
SHBG. A second approach involved the cloning
of SHBG from the zebra finch using degenerate
primers. Part of my work was directed towards
the study of another binding globulin, the
corticosteroid binding globulin (CBG).
These two studies enabled me to explore new
research areas and also to start collaborative
work with different laboratories. Finally, a IBRO Research Fellow Thierry Charlier with companion
behavioral experiment was performed on the
field to learn different behavioral studies and steroid analysis. Territorial aggression is known to
trigger hormonal changes in a large array of vertebrates.
"In the first year of my postdoctorate training I learned a large number of new techniques
(mammalian cell culture, steroid binding assay with Dr Hammond, UBC; radioimmunoassay and
behavioral field studies with Dr Soma, UBC; stereotaxis on small passerine birds with Drs Brenowitz
and Wingfield, University of Washington). During my fellowship year I attended various scientific
events in Canada and the United States. I also wrote a number of papers and abstracts, one of which
is published (Charlier TD, Harada N, Ball GF, Balthazart J (2006) Steroid Receptor Coactivator-1
down-regulation reveals different thresholds for the hormonal regulation of male sexual behavior in
relation to aromatase activity and protein expression. Behavioural Brain Research 172:333-343); the
rest are in preparation."
IBRO Return Home Fellow reports
from Argentina
Return Home grants were awarded in September
2006 to two young neuroscientists: Elaine Gavioli,
Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense,
Criciuma, Brazil and Valeria Della-Maggiore,
Dept. of Physiology, School of Medicine,
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
After studying biology in Argentina, completing
her PhD at the University of Toronto under the
supervision of Randy McIntosh on large-scale
plasticity associated with long-term visuomotor
learning (1999-2001), and carrying out post-doc
work under Dr Tomáš Paus at the Montreal
Neurological Institute (2002-2006), Valeria Della-
Maggiore returned to Argentina in February 2006.
Since September 2006, she has been a CONICET
research scientist and a lecturer at the Dept. of
Physiology, School of Medicine, University of
Buenos Aires, where she is currently setting up
her laboratory with the assístance of a Return
Home grant: “In September 2006 I joined the
School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires
(Chair Dr Jorge Medina), where it is hoped the
boundaries of the department, characterized mostly
Valeria Della-Maggiore
by animal physiology biochemistry and
pharmacology, will expand into human aspects of
physiology and cognition. This is partly reflected in the recent initiative to create an institute of
systems neuroscience that will gather neurophysiological and human research. I have been named
coordinator in a departmental grant application to the Agencia de Promoción Científica y
Tecnológica, an institution funded partly by the Argentinian Government and partly by the World
Bank, aimed at the installation of a behavioral/psychophysics facility. The two-year work plan I
presented to IBRO aims to examine the functional basis of online correction in the context of action
observation. I would first like to express my gratitude to IBRO for having provided me with the
possibility to establish and build my own laboratory in my home country.”
three
IBRONEWS 2007

NEUROSCIENCE NEWS FROM IBRO

International League Against New web site

Epilepsy brings IBRO’s Affiliated for LARC IBRO
Organizations to 83 IBRO’s Latin America Regional Committee
alumni update
(LARC) has a dedicated web site in Spanish and
Portuguese at http://larc.ibro.info. The site
The Alumni Committee (Chair Susan
The International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) was incorporated this year into IBRO in the
conveys funding opportunities, news, events Sara) has been working in close
category of Regional and International Societies and became 83rd Affiliated Organization on IBRO’s
and is generally intended to facilitate intra-LARC association with IBRO’s Regional
Governing Council. The ILAE president is Dr Peter Wolf.
The ILAE is a pre-eminent international association of physicians and other health professionals communication. Publishing on the site will be Committees to promote alumni
working towards a world where people’s lives are no longer restricted by epilepsy. Its mission is to managed by LARC via Carlos Mas, with the help activities. All former students of the
provide the highest quality of care and well-being for those afflicted with the condition and other of IBRO Webmaster Ante Padjen. All IBRO IBRO schools and VTLPs are urged to
related seizure disorders. Affiliated Organizations from the region as well register and become active members of
as those from Spain and Portugal are invited to the regional alumni association with the
submit their news and contributions of local ultimate goal of having the IBRO alumni
interest. A site for the Africa Regional organize and direct their own activities.
Committee (ARC)/Society of Neuroscientists of The total number of IBRO alumni is now
Africa (SONA) is planned soon.
over 2000.
Events over the last year have included
PENS enjoys an alumni reunion at FENS Forum 2006,
Vienna, Austria, July 11, 2006, where
successful speakers were Susan Sara, Albert
Aguayo, President of IBRO and FENS
second year President Richard Morris. In all 220
people were at the reception, of whom
The Programme of European Neuroscience 170 were alumni. There was a reunion
Schools (PENS), launched with four schools in at the SfN meeting, Atlanta, GA, USA, 6
2006, is a FENS-IBRO collaboration with the
October, 2006, which was also
objective of enriching the neuroscience
attended by alumni of the Human
education of students and young investigators
throughout Europe. It integrates educational
Frontier Science Program. A regional
activities previously sponsored by FENS through alumni programme was organized by
its Schools Committee and by IBRO's Regional Prof. Elaine del Bel at the IBRO school
Committees for Europe: Western Europe held in Brazil, University of
Regional Committee (WERC) and Central and São Paulo-Ribeirão Preto in February
Eastern Europe Regional Committee (CEERC). 2007. Activities included a reception, a
Distinguished faculty from all over the world dinner, a series of cultural lectures and
participate at the schools, where the emphasis a special alumni workshop.
is on interaction among students and faculty. To highlight the scientific achievements
Marina Bentivoglio with ILAE President Peter Wolf (2nd from right), local organizer Esper A. Cavalheiro (l),
Nicolas Gomez (Cuban student) (r), First Latin American Summer School on Epilepsy (LASSE), February 4-14, 2007 Students present their work in the form of of our alumni, special symposia are
posters and participate in work groups being organized at regional meetings.
co-ordinated by individual faculty members.
The first took place at the FAONS
Brain Campaign Meals and other activities are enjoyed as a
group. It makes for an intense week of dynamic
meeting in Hong Kong in December
2006, where four alumni of the APRC
New Regional funds events interaction often laying the groundwork for
future collaborations. In 2007 seven schools, regional schools programme gave talks.
The symposium was organized by
Committee around the world covering a wide range of topics in neuroscience,
were held throughout Europe. Students from Wing-Ho Yung, regional representative
to the Alumni Committee, and chaired
Members 2007 The Brain Campaign, through IBRO’s Public
less developed countries received travel grants.
All information at by Susan Sara and Y-S Chan,
Education Committee, continues to finance mars.glia.mdc-berlin.de/pens/ APRC Chair.
Asia-Pacific Regional events around the world that aim to further An Alumni Symposium was held at the
Committee public awareness of the brain. A selection of knowledge of the brain through discussion and IBRO Congress, Melbourne, July 2007.
enterprises that received Brain Campaign funds
Hitoshi Okamoto (Japan)* the exhibition of posters and pictures. The event The speakers were all alumni of
in 2007: was organized by Ngo Bum Elisabeth and
Fereshteh Motamedi (Iran)* regional schools. The event was a high
International Brain Awareness Symposium
colleagues, Dept. of Biological Sciences, point in the Congress and served to
Chung Hsu (Taiwan) 2007, Little Flower Medical Research Centre,
Faculty of Science, University of Ngaoundere, highlight the achievements of IBRO
Kerala, India: This is the third year in which
Jun Chen (China) IBRO has provided funds for this event whose
Cameroon Brain Awareness Week 2007 ‘Brain alumni around the world.
and Society’, Venezuela: Prof. Gladys Maestre It was chaired by the
objective is increased awareness of the brain,
African Regional Committee neuroscience, brain-related disorders and the
de Homes, University of Zulia School of Secretary-General Marina Bentivoglio
Willie Daniels (South Africa)* Medicine, Maracaibo, Venezuela, and a
importance of neuroscience in people’s lives. and Susan Sara. The symposium was
multidisciplinary team held events with children,
Latifa Dorbabi Mamine-Dorbani their parents and guardians and other members
followed by a social, co-sponsored by
(Algeria) the Post-doctoral Association,
of the local community. In total there were about
Howard Florey Institute.
H. M. Cooper (Bron, France) 3000 participants. The teaching focused on
Alfred Kongnyu Njamnshi mental health issues. This is the third time IBRO
has supported the project, which has been
(Cameroon) running for eight years.
‘Neuroscience: Science of the Brain: An
Latin America Regional Introduction for Young Students’: IBRO holds
Committee the copyright for this booklet (published by the
Fernando Torrealba (Chile) BNA), which is ideal for those with little
knowledge of the brain, touching on everything
Horacio Vanegas (Venezuela)* from development to drug addiction. Leading
Little Flower BAW event, Kerala, India neuroscientists in the UK contributed chapters
*Denotes re-election for a describing their field of expertise in a simple yet
Brain and behaviour: Ngaoundere, Alumni Symposium, Hong Kong, Dec. 2006
2nd term imaginative way. IBRO has commissioned
Cameroon: This event was held at the around 20 different language versions of the
University in Ngaoundere and at a local booklet, also available in English, Mandarin and
secondary school. The aim was to improve Spanish from the BNA.

Be sure to read The IBRO Reporter for the latest neuroscience news and events.
Sent to IBRO’s members by e-mail every month.

four
 NEUROSCIENCE NEWS FROM IBRO

New Chair for Africa Regional Committee Former ARC Chair architect of IBRO
Abdul H. Mohammed, Senior Research Scientist,
Karolinska Institutet and Professor of Psychology
schools in Africa
at Växjö University, Sweden, is the new Chair of
IBRO’s Africa Regional Committee. His three-year
term of office began at the beginning of this year.
He succeeds Raj Kalaria (UK), who as former ARC
Chair devoted a major part of his time to the
organization of schools and events in Africa for
IBRO. Prof. Mohammed’s research is predominantly
on behavioural and neural plasticity, focusing
especially on the impact of environmental complexity
on brain neurotrophins and cognition. His work in
experimental geriatrics involves the use of normal
and genetically modified rodents for development
of animal models of ageing and Alzheimer’s disease. Abdul Mohammed

TREM2 cells win Neuroscience cover

competition 2006
The winning image of IBRO annual Neuroscience cover competition
for 2006 is an image from an article by I. Prada, G. Naum Ongania, C.
Buonsanti, P. Panina-Bordignon and J. Meldolesi: ‘Triggering receptor
expressed in myeloid cells 2 (TREM2) trafficking in microglial cells:
Continuous shuttling to and from the plasma membrane regulated
by cell stimulation’ (Neuroscience Vol. 140, Issue 4 (2006)). Ilaria
Prada, a PhD student working in Prof. Jacopo Meldolesi’s lab at the
Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology Unit, Vita-Salute San Raffaele
University, Milan, Italy, describes the research and the technique
involved in creating the cover image: “Our study, supported by the
Telethon Foundation, concerns TREM2 (Triggering Receptor
Expressed in Myeloid cells 2), a receptor identified first outside
The winning cover
the brain (in macrophages and dendritic cells), which, when
mutated, induces the so-called Nasu-Hakola disease, a severe neurodegenerative syndrome with
dementia. The most interesting finding of our paper was the demonstration that the state of the
receptor at the cell surface is dynamic as a result of continuous circulation to and from the cell
surface that also exists independent of any stimulation. The cover image was assembled by mixing
together immunofluorescent images of N9 cells (TREM2 stained in red) and arranging them in a
puzzle grid, taking advantage of Adobe Photoshop 6.”
The cover competition winners may choose USD1000 of books from Elsevier Science, publisher
of Neuroscience.
Secretary-General and Raj Kalaria, SONA 2007, Kinshasa, DR Congo, May 2007
As IBRO’s Africa Regional Committee Chair for the last six years, Raj Kalaria, of the Institute for
Ageing and Health, Newcastle University, UK, relentlessly and indefatigably supported IBRO’s aims
to develop and consolidate neuroscience education in Africa. He helped organize schools and
workshops throughout the continent, beginning in 2000 with a neuroscience school in Pieterburg,
South Africa, followed by schools in Cape Town and Nairobi (2003), Grahamstown and Nairobi
(2004), Kinshasa, Stellenbosch, Rabat, Bamako and Nairobi (2005), Kinshasa and Nairobi (2006),
Nairobi, Kampala and Pretoria (2007). Prof. Kalaria also helped organize other neuroscience events in
Africa, including over the past two years a WHO-WFN brain ageing and dementia symposium in
Kenya, and, further afield, a specialized stroke and dementia meeting in Newcastle, and scientic
programmes for two dementia conferences, VasCog 2005 in Florence, Italy and VasCog 2007 in San
Antonio, USA. Raj wishes his successor luck: “I am indebted to the ARC and the international faculty
and advisors who have given unstinting support to make progress in Africa. I am confident the ARC
will readily agree, together with the students, to lend strong support to Abdul Mohammed (Kenya) as
he prepares for what has been a delightful privilege in looking after IBRO interests in Africa with
numerous IBRO colleagues, including Stephanie and Andree, and among whom were four
Secretary-Generals, David Ottoson (Sweden), Carlos Belmonte (Spain), Albert Aguayo (Canada) and
Jenny Lund (USA). I say Asante Sana!”

NEWS FROM ELSEWHERE
Call for CVs of African women in
science and technology: The African
Union Commission (http://www.africa-
union.org) requests support to
encourage women scientists in Africa
and from the Diaspora to send their
detailed CVs to the Commission so
that it can establish a database of
African women scientists. The
Commission and development
partners will use this database
whenever it has events that require the
participation of women scientists.
Enquiries: mashelenih@africa-
union.org.
Sleeping sickness parasite can't live
with stress: The parasite responsible
for African sleeping sickness causes
its victims plenty of sleepless nights,
but the parasite itself does not cope
well with stress. New research shows
that the parasite's natural response to
stress is enough to kill it, a weakness
that researchers may be able to
exploit. Shulamit Michaeli, PhD,
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
international scholar, and colleagues
at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan,
Israel, published their work in the
March 9, 2007 issue of EMBO
Reports.
Nearly 1 in 6 of world’s population
suffer from neurological disorders:
According to a new UN report of
February 27, 2007, up to one billion
people, nearly one in six of the world’s
population, suffer from neurological
disorders, from Alzheimer’s and
Parkinson’s disease, strokes, multiple
sclerosis and epilepsy to migraine,
brain injuries and neuroinfections, with
some 6.8 million dying of the maladies
each year.
SfN sponsor applicants from
underrepresented countries: The
Society for Neuroscience will sponsor
applicants from underrepresented
countries who request membership
assistance. A list of eligible countries
can be accessed at
www.sfn.org/worldaid or contact
membership@sfn.org.
IBRO’s IT expands
IBRO’s information technology has over the past few years expanded its activities beyond the
development and maintenance of IBRO web sites, which have already grown to five subsections of
the IBRO web. The purpose of the new development is to provide interactive support for IBRO
members and its programmes. As some 700 applicants already experienced, the management of
IBRO’s Funding programme relies entirely on the use of on-line tools for each of its six types of
award processed on the IBRO Funding web site (http://funding.ibro.info). Similarly, IBRO
Neuroscience Schools and the Visiting Lecture Team Programme (VLTP) use on-line services
(http://schools.ibro.info) for the whole cycle of collection and review of applications. Other
programmes are due to be developed in this way. On-line collection and review of applications not
only facilitates significantly the distributed nature of review for the committee members located
around the world, but it also allows continuous monitoring and provides statistics of IBRO activities,
of particular importance the database of alumni (over 2000 members; http://alumni.ibro.info ),
essential for planning, expansion and allocation of funds.
Members at large use extensively open access to our help line (Feedback/Contact Us) to enquire
about membership and applications, with over 1000 enquiries processed per year by IBRO IT staff.
The Internet and its web interface are particularly suitable for IBRO’s model: the creation of a
community. Some 50 intranets (protected sites on the web) now serve IBRO committees, schools
and alumni groups where members can share ideas, documents, tasks and images.
ICSU concern over visa problems
for scientists
In March 2007 the International Council for Science Unions (ICSU) Committee on Freedom and
Responsibility in the conduct of Science (CFRS) identified an issue of particular concern: visa
problems for scientists. ICSU consulted its Members and Interdisciplinary Bodies (including IBRO)
about the problem. An initial consultation of members in January 2007 indicated that the majority of
Members and IBs do not have a formal process in place for monitoring visa problems. At the same
time, several members are aware of various ad hoc cases where visa problems have been
encountered. Even in the absence of formal monitoring mechanisms, it is important to gather this
information more systematically so that CFRS can establish a more accurate picture of the countries
and nationalities involved and challenges to be addressed. For example, it was reported that
extensive delays in issuing visas, as opposed to outright visa denials, had a major impact on at least
one international meeting. Without more data, it is difficult to assess whether this is ‘the tip of the
iceberg’ or simply a one-off incident. Later in the year CFRS made a second request of Members and
IBs to monitor visa issues and report problems.

five
IBRONEWS 2007
IBRO’S REGIONAL ACTIVITIES, 2006-2007
Reports from the Regions
Africa Regional Committee: Raj Kalaria
(Chair 2000-6). The IBRO Africa schools
programme can boast of training over 300
alumni and having a repertoire of over 70
national and international faculty. The 13th
Fogarty/IBRO-Africa-sponsored
neuroscience school on Infectious
Diseases of the Nervous System was held
1-5 September, Kinshasa, Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC). Our 14th IBRO
Africa School was co-sponsored by the
ISN in Rabat, Morocco, December 8-13,
2006. The First UAE-IBRO School,
Fundamentals of Basic and Clinical
Neurosciences, Al Ain, UAE, January 22-
31, 2007, was the first joint venture of the
ARC and APRC led by Profs Valsa Eapen
(UAE), Abdu Adem (UAE) and Raj Kalaria
(UK-Kenya). Another milestone was the
school Behavioural Brain Research at
Raj Kalaria with students, 1st UAE-IBRO
school, Al Ain, UAE, January 2007
Makerere University and Mulago Hospital,
Kampala, Uganda, April 7-14, 2007. We
then returned to Nairobi for another
successful Fogarty/IBRO course,
Neuroimmunology and Infectious Diseases
of the Brain, May 22-25, 2007 at ICIPE, our
favourite training site. We look forward to
the 15th IBRO Africa School, South Africa,
December 7-14, 2007. The Association
pour la Promotion des Neurosciences du
Congo (APRONES) hosted this 8th Biennial
Meeting organized by Profs T. Kayembe
(SONA President; DRC) and P. Luabeya
(DRC-Belgium) and attended by more than
300 delegates. A key feature of SONA 2007
was the 1st James K. Kimani memorial
lecture in recognition of James’s (University
of Nairobi, Kenya) contributions to the
founding of SONA and promotion of the
neurosciences. ARC and SONA members
nominated Dr Desire Tshala-Katumbay
(DRC-USA), IBRO alumnus 2000, to be the
first recipient. The 2nd Mediterranean
Conference of Neurosciences, December
13-15, 2006 was convened by Prof.
Mohamed Bennis in Marrakech, Morocco.
An International Symposium on Brain
Ageing was held in Nairobi, April 10-13,
2007, supported by the IBRO Symposia &
Workshops Programme and endorsed by
WHO and WFN (World Federation of
Neurology). Delegates numbered 100,
including several IBRO alumni, SONA,
SANS and APRONES members. The
organizers (Raj Kalaria, Kenya and Piero
Antuono, USA) also took part in a strategy
meeting with the WFN Executive
Committee to formulate the WFN Africa
Project Committee (co-chaired by A. Gallo
Diop, Senegal), which will facilitate stronger
co-operation between WFN and IBRO
activities in Africa.
Members of SONA and SANS participated
in the IBRO 2007 World Congress, 12-17
July in Melbourne, Australia. The ARC
supported a Satellite Symposium on the
Neurobiology of Neglected African
Disorders organized by Nilesh Patel and
colleagues. The IBRO Africa alumni were
represented by Dr Ben Chindo (Nigeria) at
the IBRO Alumni ‘Stars’ Symposium
six
chaired by Prof. Susan Sara.
ARC is proud to have guided six African
organizations to be represented on the
IBRO Governing Council: the Society of
Neuroscientists of Africa (SONA),
Moroccan Neuroscience Association
(MNA), Southern African Neuroscience
Society (SANS), Kenyan Society for
Neuroscience (KSN), Nigerian Society for
Neuroscience (NSN) and APRONES. ARC
continues to encourage groups in
Cameroon, Senegal and Egypt to seek
IBRO membership. Members of ARC
and the six African neuroscience
societies also share responsibilities on
other IBRO committees and continue to
contribute to the activities of PAANS (Pan
African Association of Neurological
Sciences) and to the African Journal of
Neurological Sciences.
Asia Pacific Regional Committee: Chair
Ying-Shing Chan. 1. Associate Schools:
Each five-day associate school has around
36 students (MBBS, MSc and 1st year PhD
students), with lectures, group discussions,
demonstrations of selected techniques. a)
5th Associate School, Singapore, June 26-
30, 2006. Co-sponsored by International
Society for Neurochemistry. Organizer:
Prof. Peter T. H. Wong, National University
of Singapore. b) 6th Associate School,
Tehran, Iran, August 26-30, 2006. Co-
sponsored by Iranian Neuroscience Society
and Iranian Society for Physiology and
Pharmacology, Organizer: Prof. Fereshteh
Motamedi, Shaheed Besheti University of
Medical Sciences. Students from China,
India, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia and Pakistan. c)
Associate School, Al Ain, United Arab
Emirates, January 24-31, 2007. Jointly
organized by IBRO ARC and APRC.
Organizer: Prof. Valsa Eapen, United Arab
Emirates University, Al Ain. d) Associate
School, Karachi, Pakistan, March 26-30,
2007. Organizer: Dr S Ather Enam, Aga
Khan University, Karachi. Students from
China, India, Iran, and Pakistan. The
Pakistan Neuroscience Society was formed
during the Associate School.
2. Schools: Each two-week school takes
25 students (PhD and postdocs) for
lectures, tutorials and laboratory projects.
a) 8th IBRO School of Neuroscience,
Mumbai, India, Sept. 1-15, 2006.
Organizer: Dr Shubha Tole, Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research; 24 students from
China, India, Iran and Taiwan. b) 9th IBRO
School of Neuroscience, Hong Kong,
China, Nov. 30-Dec. 13, 2006. Organizers:
Profs Wing-Ho Yung, Chinese University of
Hong Kong and Ken KL Yung, Hong Kong
Baptist University, held after the 4th
FAONS Congress; 25 students from
Australia, China, India, Iran, Malaysia,
Taiwan and Thailand. An IBRO Alumni
Symposium took place Nov. 30-Dec. 2
during the FAONS Congress.
3. Advanced Schools: Advanced schools
emphasize problem-based learning on the
design of research projects using state-of-
the-art technology of the host institute. The
small student-teacher ratio caters for in-
depth interaction. Preference is given to
IBRO alumni of previous two-week
schools. a) 1st IBRO Advanced School of
Neuroscience, Wako, Japan, Feb. 26-
March 9, 2007. Organizer: Prof. Hitoshi
Okamote, RIKEN Brain Research Institute.
Ten students from Australia, India, Korea,
and Taiwan. b) 2nd IBRO Advanced School
of Neuroscience, Melbourne, Australia, July
2–6, 2007. Organizer: Dr Andrew Gundlach,
Howard Florey Institute, University of
Melbourne. The school was held just
before the IBRO Congress in Melbourne.
RIKEN Summer Program 2006: Travel
support was awarded so that participants
from APRC could attend.
Exchange Fellowship Scheme: The
scheme sponsors young APRC
neuroscientists (under 40 years old) to
spend six months in a host laboratory
within our region. Applicants must provide
strong evidence of intention to return to the
home country after the exchange.
APRC Travel Grants: Grants a) provide
subsidy for individuals to attend
international conferences; b) support
workshops/symposia in disadvantaged
areas (by providing travel grants for young
neuroscientists).
Additional efforts in 2006: 50 young
neuroscientists received travel scholarships
to attend the 4th FAONS Congress, Hong
Kong, 2006. APRC also offered support to
four IBRO alumni (from China, India, Iran,
Japan) to present their work at the
IBRO Alumni Symposium during the
FAONS Congress.
9th IBRO School, Hong Kong
Central and Eastern Europe Regional
Committee: Chair Pavel Balaban. In 2006
the CEERC provided representatives of 12
CEERC countries with 19 stipends to
attend FENS Forum 2006. Research
awards within the region were given to R.
Averkin (Ukraine) for work in Russia
(Moscow) in 2006, and to M. Balcerzyk
(Poland) for a short-term visit to Ukraine
(Kiev). A new CEERC initiative, IBRO
Lecturers Visits to the Region, resulted in
one award for the visit of Prof. D. Leopold
(USA) to Russia. Eight international
conferences in Hungary, Russia, Poland,
Georgia, Slovakia and Romania were
supported, the support being mainly for
young scientists.
In 2007 conferences in Poland, Slovenia,
Romania, Hungary and Russia were
planned for CEERC support. There was
great interest this year in interregional
visits, which are very effective for initiating
collaboration, with the first research visit of
young scientists abroad. Five such visits
were supported in 2007. Such visits take
up only a relatively small of our budget.
Two prominent scientists Drs L. Kaczmarek
and T. Freund were invited as IBRO CEERC
lecturers to Russia (June 2007) to a jubilee
XX Physiological Congress They gave
plenary lectures on the hottest topics in
neuroscience: molecular mechanisms of
synaptic plasticity and cannabinoid
signaling in the brain.
Many other applications for support were
discussed, as well as a new initiative of the
IBRO Alumni Committee to help fund
representatives of IBRO Regions to attend
the Alumni Symposium in Melbourne, July
2007.The Committee evaluates most of its
proposals electronically, thus collecting
applications all year around and providing
applicants with fast decisions. In addition,
once a year the CEERC meets in various
countries throughout the region (Budapest,
Hungary, 2004; Sofia, Bulgaria, 2004; Kiev,
Ukraine, 2005; Vienna, Austria, 2006;
Moscow, Russia, 2007) to discuss strategic
issues and submitted applications.
Latin America Regional Committee:
Chair Marta Hallak. 1. Schools: Since
2004 the Canadian Government via the
Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health
and Addiction (INMHA) has granted a
substantial contribution each year to
LARC-IBRO schools. All academic
activities promoted and supported by
LARC were co-financed by local
institutions and international organizations.
In 2007 LARC chose three schools to fund:
XII Advanced Neuroscience School,
Montevideo, Uruguay, March 12-30, 2007,
Organizer: Dr Omar Macadar; IBRO
Advanced School of Neuroscience in
Argentina: Neuroethology, Buenos Aires,
Argentina, Nov. 12-29, 2007, Organizers:
Drs Lidia Szczupak and Daniel Tomsic; III
School of Neuroscience in Brazil, Sao
Paulo, Ribeirao Preto, Brazil, Nov. 25-Dec.
9, 2007, Organizers: Drs Elaine Del Bel and
Dr Janete Anselmo-Franci.
2. Courses: 16 regional courses were
supported in 2007, with LARC offering
certain funding for each of up to eight
specialized training courses in the region.
3. Intra-Regional Exchange Awards:
Established in 2000, this successful
program enables students to acquire
technical experience in areas not available
in their home country. To date, more than
120 students have spent from 10 to 60
days in several labs across the region. In
2007, of 58 applications, 29 regional
exchange awards were granted.
4. Additional expenses: LARC called for
proposals to support the attendance of an
IBRO alumnus/a to the IBRO World
Congress in Melbourne. Funds were
granted for travel from the LARC budget.
5. Supranational organizations: Since
2006 LARC has sought to establish a link
with Ibero American societies for
neuroscience to facilitate communication in
both the region and Spain and Portugal. A
steering committee was appointed in 2006
with the aim of organizing an Ibero
American Neuroscience Congress.
6. Emergent Neuroscience Groups:
LARC is requesting a special budget in this
category owing to the lack of neuroscience
researchers in several Latin American
countries. There is an initiative from
neuroscience research groups in Spain to
strengthen ties with Latin American groups.
We are planning to combine the need to
promote emergent groups in Latin America
with the support offered by Spanish
colleagues in this new LARC program.
7. LARC/ARC interaction: African
contributions to Latin American culture
form one important element of the
foundations of IBRO. It would seem natural
to start a collaboration between LARC and
ARC neuroscience groups to strengthen
transcontinental activities and we plan to
explore ways of assisting Portuguese-
speaking colleagues in Africa, e.g.
Mozambique, Angola, Guinea Bissau,
Cabo Verde and São Tomé e Príncipe. The
National Research Council of Brazil (CNPq)
has recently launched a program of joint
projects with Portuguese-speaking African
research groups
8. Return Home Programme: The difficult
conditions faced by young scientists
returning home often force them to remain
abroad. IBRO’s Return Home Programme
targets former LARC awardees who have
obtained advanced training abroad. LARC
proposes to help fund these awardees to
get established in their home countries.
IAC-USNC (US/Canada Regional
Committee): Chair Edward Jones. The
Society for Neuroscience, National
Academy of Sciences, National Institutes
of Health, IBRO and representatives of the
Canadian Association for Neuroscience
(CAN) and the Canadian Institute of
Neuroscience, Mental Health and
Addiction (INMHA) have worked through
the IAC-USNC over the past two years to
provide support for a number of activities
to further IBRO’s objectives.
Travel Fellowships: This year SfN awarded
travel fellowships to nine students to
attend and present their work at the IBRO
Congress, Melbourne, July 2007. SfN
supported 30 students from resource-
restricted countries to present an abstract
at the 2007 SfN Annual Meeting in San
Diego, CA.
Melbourne Satellite Symposium: A three-
day workshop, Neurodegenerative
Diseases: Different Phenotypes, Shared
Mechanism of Pathogenesis, organized by
John Trojanowski (Univ. of Pennsylvania,
USA), took place in Melbourne, July 10-12,
2007 in conjunction with the IBRO World
Congress. Hosted by the University of
Melbourne, the workshop was modelled on
a highly successful neurobiology of disease
workshop held at the SfN 2004 annual
meeting. It focused on shared underlying
mechanisms common to Alzheimer’s
disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal dementia
and other dementias, and
neurodegenerative disorders characterized
by intracellular and/or extracellular
aggregates of proteinacious fibrils.
Financial support was provided by SfN,
NIH National Institute of Mental Health, NIH
National Institute of Neurological Disorders
Stroke, NIH National Institute on Drug
Abuse, Neurochem, Inc. and the National
Alzheimer’s Association. The course faculty
comprised local and international lecturers.
As in past years, the Grass Foundation and
SfN supported the Ricardo Miledi Program.
The four-week course, Neuronal
Differentiation during Embryonic
Development & from Stem Cells in vitro
and in vivo, was held at UNAM/Juriquilla,
Queretaro, Mexico, Nov. 6-Dec. 2, 2006.
The course directors were Alfredo Varela
Echavarria and Magda Giordano Noyola.
The 15 students came from eight Latin
American and Caribbean countries and
were exposed to topics on neuronal
differentiation and stem cell biology
through a series of basic and specialized
lectures; they received intensive hands-on
training on four broad methodologies
relevant to the subjects. The 15 students
will receive a travel stipend to attend the
2007 SfN annual meeting, San Diego, CA.
Web-based neuroscience lectures: Via
www.iac-usnc.org the committee continues
to work on a seminar and neuroscience
methods series to bring up-to-date
neuroscience information to researchers in
resource-restricted countries. Web-based
neuroscience lectures are accessible by
scientists worldwide and feature narrated
data slides by prominent neuroscientists
from the National Academy of Sciences
(NAS) and SfN.
IBRO North American schools: Once
again in 2007, the committee worked
directly with IBRO’s Board of Schools and
MBL to identify and encourage highly
qualified and motivated research trainees
from less developed countries to register
Albert Chiang, Cold Spring Harbor Lab.
Course 2007
for MBL neuroscience summer courses at
MBL, Woods Hole, MA and Cold Spring
Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), Cold Spring
Harbor, NY. Three MBL and five CSHL
fellowships were awarded. Of the eight
selected, two were from Brazil and two
from India; one from Uganda, Argentina,
Nigeria and Romania. The 2006 IBRO
fellows who submitted an abstract for the
2007 SfN meeting in San Diego received
travel funds plus one complementary
workshop registration for a Friday course of
their choice.
Continued on page 7
 EDUCATION & TRAINING 2006-2007
IBRO Neuroscience School numbers continue to rise
The rate of IBRO’s neuroscience schools has risen rapidly since 1999, when there were just three schools. With the
increase in the number of schools has come a rise in the number of IBRO alumni to over 2000. In 2007 there were
22 schools.
Schools reports from
around the world
APRONES Symposium and FIC/IBRO
Neuroscience School, Kinshasa, DR
Congo: The 3rd Symposium of APRONES
(Association Promoting Neurosciences),
Neuroscience and Tropical Diseases and
the 13th Fogarty/IBRO Neuroscience
School, Infectious and Toxic Disorders of
the Nervous System were held on August
31 and September 1-5, 2006 respectively,
under the auspices of the Conseil d’
Administration des Universités, Kinshasa,
DRC. This was the first IBRO School to be
organized by IBRO’s Clinical/Basic Science
Links Programme. The school received
major support from the Fogarty
International Center (FIC) and from IBRO
Africa Regional Committee. Around 200
participants attended the APRONES
Symposium, while the school was attended
by 21 students (10 from the DRC and 11
from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon,
Nigeria, Zimbabwe) and 10 faculty. Didactic
courses and three workshops included the
anatomy of the brain, pathogens in malaria
and trypanosomiasis, and HIV. Topics at
the APRONES Symposium included
neuroscience and tropical diseases,
infectious disorders of the CNS, toxic and
metabolic disorders, child neurology and
infections, and psychiatric disorders.
Fogarty/IBRO Latin American School of
Neuroscience, Buenos Aires, Argentina:
The III Latin American School of
Neuroscience was held in and around
Buenos Aires between September 18-30,
2006 and October 2-6 2006. The topics
covered by the school included
embryology of the central nervous system,
early genes and phospholipid synthesis,
learning and memory, microglia and
inflammation, biology of the Node of
Ranvier, myelination, demyelination and
remyelination, and neuronal cell death.
The faculty comprised distinguished
neuroscientists from abroad and from
Argentina. Of the 72 applications, 40
Fogarty/IBRO School, Buenos Aires
students were selected from Uruguay,
Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Cuba. Students’
research projects were presented as
posters and discussed in detail during a
number of poster presentations. Lab
projects included: a) in situ hybridization
techniques; b) models of ischemia/hypoxia
in the CNS and the retina and their
consequences, studied by
Continued from page 6
1st Canadian IBRO School, Toronto,
Canada: The school, Fundamentals of
Epilepsy, held at the University of Toronto in
May 2007, was the first IBRO school held in
North America/Canada where students from
Africa and Latin America were brought to
Canada. See report in the Schools section of
this page.
Western Europe Regional Committee:
Chair Monica Di Luca. This year the WERC
Committee worked hard to fulfil its main
immunohystochemical and
electrophysiological techniques
respectively; c) isolation of lipid rafts; d)
studies of Schwann cell development and
Wallerian degeneration in the sciatic nerve;
e) studies of stress granules by
confocal microscopy.
1st UAE-IBRO School, Al Ain, United
Arab Emirates: The school, held January
24-31, 2007, was a joint effort of two IBRO
Regional Committees, the Asian-Pacific
Regional Committee and the Africa
Regional Committee and was hosted by
the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences
(FMHS), United Arab Emirates University, Al
Ain. Thirty-two students from Bahrain,
Egypt, India, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Morocco,
Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Sudan, Tunisia and
the UAE attended. Students were
graduates in biological sciences, pharmacy
and medicine with research interest in
Class President Fatima Ismail and Secretary
Ahmad Obeidat, UAE-IBRO School
basic or clinical neuroscience. A total of 18
instructors, including five international
faculty and 12 faculty from FMHS,
instructed an intensive course in basic and
clinical neurosciences. Topics included
neurotransmission, neurodegeneration,
neural plasticity and neurodevelopmental
disorders. Lab work included gross
morphology, basic neuropathology,
immunohistochemistry, behavioural testing
and clinical aspects of epilepsy. The four
best oral presentations were delivered by
Jitendra Sinha (India), Maha Al Riyami
(Oman), Neza Bouhaddou (Morocco) and
Aisha Al Dhufair (UAE), who were each
awarded a special prize. At the closing
ceremony students were awarded
diplomas by the Dean of FMHS and, in the
IBRO schools tradition, the alumni elected
Fatima Ismail (UAE) as President and
Ahmad Obeidat (Jordan) as Secretary.
1st IBRO Associate School of
Neuroscience, Karachi, Pakistan:
The school was held at the Panjwani
Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug
Research (PCMD), University of Karachi,
Pakistan, March 25-30, 2007. Participant
Fatima Shad (PCMD) reports: “The school
was organized by PCMD, Karachi
University and the Aga Khan University,
Karachi under the umbrella of IBRO. Of the
150 applicants, 37 national and
international were selected. There were
lectures by national and international
faculty, followed by a workshop comprising
a lecture session each morning, then
objective: to improve mobility of young
neuroscientists and strengthen educational
programmes. We continued to collaborate
with FENS on the WERC/FENS PhD
programme launched in 2003 to support PhD
fellowships in Europe. Three students are still
working successfully on their research
projects: F. Trigo, G. Barretto and Ghato. In
addition, M. Mellado (University of Havana) is
completing her fellowship under the
supervision of Prof. Ian Russell (University of
Sussex, UK). Continuing a fruitful tradition,
we supported the Seville School in
hands-on experiments each afternoon on
the topic of the day. Huge IBRO school
banners hung from the gates of the
Universities of Karachi and Agha Khan and
of PCMD. Major outcomes of the IBRO
School were the creation of the
Neuroscience Society of Pakistan, IBRO
Students Alumni and the proposal for the
first Brain Bank in Pakistan for mental
disorder research.”
IBRO African Neuroscience Workshop,
Kampala, Uganda: The Workshop,
Behavioural Neuroscience, held on the
campus of Makerere University, April 7-14,
2007, was organized by Profs Abdul
Mohammed (Sweden) and Peter Baguma
(Uganda) and brought together an
international team of instructors and 22
students from the Eastern African region
(Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania).The workshop
courses were held in the Depts of
Psychology and Zoology and organized in
modules with associated workshops. The
students learned about practical
approaches to neuroethology and
computer assisted methods of behavioural
observation, basic brain organization,
memory circuits and behavioural
neuroscience, how to construct mazes and
design experiments, how to use video-
tracking equipment. They set up their own
maze experiments and collected data.
Charles Gross (USA) lectured on the history
of neuroscience and up-to-date techniques
on neural correlates of face recognition and
auditory communication in primates. Other
coursework included lectures on
chronobiology, sleep, the influence of the
environment, of African plant alkaloids and
of microbial invasion, communication in
primates, and brain and behaviour. Peter
Baguma of the Psychology Institute traced
the history of the teaching of psychology at
Makerere University, and G. I-Basuta
(Uganda) lectured about ongoing research
on primate behaviour in the Ugandan
national forest reserves.
Fogarty-IBRO School, Nairobi, Kenya:
The Fogarty-sponsored course on
Neuroimmunology and Infectious Diseases
of the Brain was held at the International
Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology
(ICIPE) in Duduville, on the outskirts of
Nairobi, Kenya, April 21-25, 2007, just
before the SONA 2007 International
Conference in Kinshasa, Congo. The 30
students and local trainees came from
Cameroon, Ethiopia, Senegal, Sudan,
Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. The 11
teaching faculty included IBRO Secretary-
General Marina Bentivoglio (Italy), Ahmed
El-Gohary (Egypt), Sharon Juliano (USA),
Raj Kalaria (UK-Kenya), Tom Kariuki
(Institute of Primate Research, IPR, Kenya),
Leon Kazumba (DR Congo), Krister
Kristensson (Sweden), Hastings Ozwara
(IPR, Kenya), Nilesh Patel (Kenya), Maria
Chiara Stefanini (Italy) and Désiré Tshala-
Katumbay (DRC-USA). Dr Peter Wanzala
(Kenya) updated the assembled group on
activities of the Kenya Medical Research
Neuroscience, organized by Jose-M.
Delgado-Garcia. This year the school held
April 2-June 29, 2007, was officially
included in the Universidad Pablo de
Olavide’s University Master Programme,
which also welcomes Latin American
students (at least one-third come from Latin
America), representing a good platform of
exchanges between European and Non-
European students.
The Committee decided in 2006 to support
initiatives of national European societies for
neuroscience. We supported the British
Neuroscience Association (BNA) at a joint
Institute (KEMRI). Nchafatso Obonyo
(medical student) gave a report on ‘Ubongo
2007’, Brain Awareness activities held at
the University of Nairobi earlier in the year.
Interactive lectures covered discussions on
clinical neuroanatomy, principles of
immunology, and modes of infection,
quality management, sleep mechanisms,
epilepsy, spastic paraparesis, retroviral
infections, human African trypanosomiasis,
cerebral malaria, HIV/AIDS,
neurocystercercosis and schistosomiasis.
During the short workshops students were
instructed in practical neuroanatomy using
plasticised brains (SJ), EEG in infected
children (MCS) and cognitive testing
methods (RK). Kevin Ongeti (Kenya) was
elected Class President and Birke Hurrisa
(Ethiopia) Secretary.
Sharon Juliano discusses the brain,
Fogarty-IBRO School, Nairobi
1st Canadian IBRO School, Toronto,
Canada: The school, Fundamentals of
Epilepsy, was held at the University of
Toronto, May 27–June 1, 2007. It was
designed for young, promising trainees,
both neuroscientists and clinical, from two
developing areas with the history of
previous IBRO/INMHA-sponsored schools
of neuroscience. This was the first IBRO
school held in North America/Canada
where students from Africa and Latin
America were brought to Canada. From 70
candidates, 16 students were selected by
members of IBRO’s ARC and LARC and
included graduate students, clinical
trainees and junior staff from Ethiopia,
Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Argentina, Brazil,
Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela. Tutors
were mainly from Canadian League against
Epilepsy/Canadian Epilepsy Research
Institute (CLAE-CERI); others were from the
American Epilepsy Society, the NIH Fogarty
International Center and NINDS. The
course covered topics in epilepsy, with an
emphasis on the interactive sessions: Each
morning interactive lectures included basic
clinical and experimental neuroscience of
epilepsy, animal models of epilepsy,
development and plasticity, clinical issues,
molecular genetics of epilepsy, therapeutic
approaches. In the afternoons lab
demonstrations and clinical units followed
on the topic of the day. Daily 30–60-min.
discussion periods summarized the
experience of the day. Evenings were
reserved for presentations of general
interest and included a topical presentation
of epilepsy management in Ghana (A.
Akpalu), Kathy Michels’ well-received
Students of the Postgraduate
Program, Seville
1st Canadian IBRO School, Toronto
review of the Fogarty International Center
(NIH) and a look into the future at the
promises of the postgenomic era (A.L.
Padjen). All students had an opportunity to
give 10-min. oral presentations of their
research followed by lively discussions by
the whole class. On the last day the
students elected Class President Michael
Kihara (Kenya) and Vice-President Claudia
Funchal (Brazil).
1st Latin-American Postgraduate
Program on Neuroscience and
Behavioral Biology, Seville, Spain: 25
students from Spanish and Latin-American
universities and research centers
(Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Colombia,
Peru and Venezuela) attended the courses
at University Pablo de Olavide. The
program, April 2-June 29, 2007, was
directed by Dr J. M. Delgado-García
(University Pablo de Olavide) and
comprised nine courses (60 credits)
covering the main aspects of modern
neurosciences. Training included regular
lectures, lab work, demonstrations and
invited lectures. The courses were
presented by 36 scientists from European
and American countries devoted to
comparative and multidisciplinary studies
on neurosciences. All students obtained an
official certificate allowing them to follow a
Doctorate Program (in order to achieve a
PhD degree), starting on October 2007.
IBRO/FENS awarded fellowships covering
living and/or registration expenses of most
of the Latin-American students. In addition,
students were supported by their own labs
or by fellowships from the University Pablo
de Olavide. The Spanish Ministry of
Education covered the travel and living
expenses of invited teachers and speakers
from European and Latin-American
countries. The University Pablo de Olavide
made a generous effort to allow the use of
their teaching and research facilities.
Visiting Lecture Team Programme 2007:
The VLTP runs experimental-based lecture
courses covering topics in basic
neuroscience. The team is made up of
neuroscientists recognized for their
excellence as experimentalists and
teachers. In 2007 the following courses
were held: VLTP Neurobiology Course,
Asuncion, Paraguay, April 25-27;
Neuroscience Course, Xi’an, China, June
20-28; Neuroscience Course, Lagos,
Nigeria, July 18-26; Neuroscience Course,
Manaus, Brazil, September 19-26.
Polish-UK symposium at the 2007 BNA
meeting, offering stipends to East European
students. IBRO-WERC funded
(supplemented by the French Neuroscience
Society) the registration for 12 students from
North Africa and Egypt to attend the 8th
Meeting of the French Neuroscience Society,
Montpelier, May 22-25, 2007. WERC
continued its cooperation with CEERC and
FENS on the PENS Committee, whose
primary goal under the actual guidance of
Susan Sara is to organize the Programme of
European Neuroscience Schools.
seven
IBRONEWS 2007

IBRO: PROMOTER OF SCIENTIFIC

EXCHANGE AND TRAINING AROUND THE WORLD

President Albert Aguayo leaves after IBRO an invaluable

International six prolific years in office organization in
Brain Research When Albert Aguayo was elected President of
IBRO in January 2004, he had, as Secretary- world neuroscience,
Organization General from 2000 to 2003, already left an

Executive Committee
indisputably remarkable legacy for IBRO. With
his well-known zeal and enthusiasm he
says outgoing
reinforced existing programmes, initiated new
President
Albert Aguayo (Canada)
ones, encouraged many neuroscience societies
and organizations to become Affiliated
Secretary-General
Secretary-General Organizations of IBRO: all in the name of Jennifer Lund served as Secretary-General to
Marina Bentivoglio (Italy) enhancing global neuroscience training IBRO from 2004 to 2006. In an interview for the
Treasurer and education. IBRO web site in the last week of her three-year
Steve Redman (Australia) As President of IBRO, Prof. Aguayo has term, she reflects: “I have been particularly
continued to promote its activities, visiting and pleased to see the marked increase in the
Chairs of Regional Committees lecturing at IBRO schools and workshops number of IBRO schools and in new member
around the world. He can be proud of the 2000- societies of the Governing Council (now 83).
Abdul Mohammed (Africa)
strong Alumni Programme which he initiated. This reflects the value of IBRO as an educational
Ying Shing Chan (Asia/Pacific)
The alumni, former students of IBRO's enterprise and the perceived value of the
Pavel Balaban (Central and Eastern Europe)
educational programmes, now represent a organization to professional societies with
Marta Hallak (Latin America)
flourishing community of young international interest in neuroscience around the world. Our
Edward Jones (US/Canada)
neuroscientists who communicate via the alumni now number over 2000 and it is through
Monica Di Luca (Western Europe)
Alumni web site (http://alumni.ibro.info). these young people that neuroscience will make
IBRO Secretariat its mark in the coming years.
New FRSQ-INMHA Aguayo Fellowship “It is to be hoped that the schools programme
255 Rue Saint-Honoré At the 9th Annual Meeting of the Institute of IBRO President Albert Aguayo presents award to Brain can generate permanent neuroscience schools
75001 Paris, France Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction Bee winner (Australia-New Zealand) Quinn McGennisken: in regions of the world currently lacking
Phone:+33-1-46-47-92-92 (INMHA) in Toronto, Canada, May 2007, Alain at the IBRO Congress, Melbourne neuroscience educational opportunities. Ideally
Fax: +33-1-46-47-42-50 Baudet, Director of le Fonds de la Recherche en such permanent neuroscience programmes
Executive Director Sante de Quebec (FRSQ) and INMHA Director students from developing countries to spend should accompany clinical entities such as
Stephanie de La Rochefoucauld Remi Quirion announced the establishment of a three months in a Quebec lab. One award is to medical schools where direct links to the clinic
ibro3@wanadoo.fr new FRSQ-INMHA fellowship named after Prof. be awarded annually and will be open to as well as biology can be made. Crucially
Director of Programmes Aguayo to mark his outstanding contribution to students from developing countries in one of the important, our Return Home Programme awards
Robynn Rockstad-Rex neuroscience in Quebec, Canada and the world. following IBRO Regions: Africa, Asia-Pacific, grants to support young faculty to return home
ibro4@wanadoo.fr The purpose of this special award is to enable Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America. after training abroad.
Accountant “Given the wide scope of IBRO’s programmes
Kathryn Berry
ibro@wanadoo.fr Neuroscience: IBRO’s journal cuts and the chronic need worldwide for expertise in
neuroscience practice and clinical applications,
it is essential that IBRO continue to build its
IBRO Web Site: www.ibro.info first decision date to 30 days financial support in the future. I would like to
Webmaster & Head of thank all the many organizations that have
Information Technology Chief Editor Ole Petter Ottersen reports: worked with IBRO and offered support over the
Ante Padjen The physical appearance and quality of publishing services of a journal are intrinsic to its success; three years that I have been Secretary-General.”
ante.padjen@mcgill.ca even more critical is the speed by which manuscripts are handled. By the end of 2006 the time to
Senior Editor first decision was 30 days. Neuroscience will strive to decrease that time even further. Neuroscience
Andrée Blakemore launched in summer 2007 a new category of papers, Neuroscience Forefront Reviews. They are by
andree.blakemore@dpag.ox.ac.uk invitation only and will be written by leading scientists who have introduced new concepts, models or
methods in neurobiology. We hope that the Forefront Reviews will emerge as reference papers in the
'IBRO News' respective fields. Neuroscience will maintain its focus on Special Issues as a forum for dissemination
of authoritative reviews within specific topics in neurobiology.
Editor in Chief In spring 2007 the Special Issue was Genome Dynamics and DNA Repair in the CNS (ed. Vilhelm
Andree Blakemore Bohr; Vol. 145, Issue 4, April 14, 2007), which focuses on research on DNA damage and repair in
andree.blakemore@dpag.ox.ac.uk neurons and glial cells. It highlights an exciting new and multidisciplinary field that aims to elucidate
the mechanism and etiology of neurodegenerative diseases. The papers in this issue provide new
insight in how genome instability and DNA repair may contribute to or prevent neurodegenerative
and other ageing-related dysfunction. Progress in this area will improve our understanding of
neuronal biology and neural dysfunction in healthy and diseased brains. Ultimately, this research may
help identify novel approaches to diagnose, treat, and prevent neurological disease.
A Special Issue on the auditory system is scheduled for publication in early 2008. Our vision remains
that Neuroscience should be the first choice for submission of high-quality papers within all
disciplines of brain research.
Continued from page 1
(Hamdan Arab World Award for a Medical Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Vice-President of the and with other colleagues in the UAE, Prof.
Centre Education, Hamdan Award for Volunteers UAE, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. Bentivoglio was also fully informed about the
in Humanitarian Medical Service, and several important current strategies regarding the
UAE awards for achievements in science), thus On the occasion of the Sheikh Hamdan Award Sheikh Hamdan Award for Medical Sciences
representing altogether a remarkable initiative to for Medical Sciences Conference in December and in particular the Centre for Arab Genomic
promote excellence in science, with a focus on 2006 and again in January 2007, IBRO Studies (CAGS). Inaugurated in 2003, CAGS is a
the development and nurturing of science in Secretary-General Marina Bentivoglio met the remarkable initiative with the mission to alleviate
Jennifer Lund
the UAE. Hamdan Award Secretary-General, Prof. Najib Al human suffering caused by genetic diseases in
Khaja. The occasion of the second meeting was the Arab World. CAGS has broadened its
The topic for the next Grand Hamdan the 1st IBRO-UAE School held in Al-Ain database on genetic diseases around the world,
International Award 2008 is ‘Stem Cell (January 24-31, 2007) on Fundamentals on becoming the largest of its kind in the Arab World.
Research’, of obvious high interest in the Basic and Clinical Neuroscience in the Middle Through the publication of the SHAMS Journal
neurosciences. East. Prof. Al Khaja, who is committed to
disseminating and publicizing the principles,
of Medical Sciences, the Sheikh Hamdan Award
for Medical Sciences has now engaged in a
Neuroscience
In his vision, HH Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al
Maktoum, Founder and Patron of the Award,
mission and objectives of the Hamdan Award,
has very cordial and close relationships with
demanding editorial venture, in which brain
sciences will certainly have adequate emphasis.
TOCs e-mailed
Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance
and Industry, wanted the Award to support and
neuroscientists of the UAE University in Al-Ain.
Possible future developments of neuroscience in Marina Bentivoglio
regularly to
enrich biomedical sciences in the UAE, in line
with the directives by HH the President of the
the UAE have been discussed with Prof. Al
Khaja during these meetings.
IBRO Secretary-General
IBRO members
UAE, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan, and
Sheikh Hamdan’s brother, HH Sheikh Mohamed Through her conversations with Prof. Al Khaja

eight