Dear All

it is my great pleasure to invite you to the next Nencki Institute Seminar which will take place on May 26^th at 3pm in the CN Lecture Hall. We will host Dr. Bassem Hassan, head of Brain Development team and Scientific Director of the Brain and Spinal Cord Institute (Institut du Cerveau – ICM) in Paris. Dr Hassan will give a lecture entitled Temporal control of neurogenesis.

Abstract

An important manifestation of time during neurogenesis is the generation of different types of neurons from the same pool of progenitors over time. This means that neural progenitors can decode time and convert it into discrete quanta of different neuronal fates. However, for progenitors to decode time into discrete quanta, it must be true that total time is somehow genetically encoded. The extension and retraction of this total neurogenic time in closely related species is associated with changes in brain size, often without significant changes to neuronal fate. However, the genetic mechanisms that translate total time into neuronal numbers are not well understood. Previous work from the lab suggests that transcription factors known as proneural proteins are good candidates for this link: altering the timing of proneural protein expression or activity alters the size of the neuronal lineages they produce. Conversely, changes the total time of neurogenesis alters proneural gene expression. These observations suggest an intimate mechanistic link between timing, transcriptional regulation and brain size.

The lecture will be full onsite, it will be followed by a get together reception.

Best regards
Aleksandra Pękowska