Joshua Rosenthal is a Senior Scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from Stanford University and completed his postdoctoral training in biophysics and physiology at UCLA. Before coming to the Marine Biological Laboratory, he rose from Assistant to Full Professor at the University of Puerto Rico’s Medical Sciences Campus. Dr. Rosenthal’s research focuses on the process of RNA editing from a variety of angles. His group has shown that mRNA recoding is unusually active in cephalopods. They are interested in what it’s being used for and how the underlying machinery for RNA editing differs in this taxon. Other projects aim to use RNA editing as a vehicle for therapeutics. Finally, Rosenthal also leads an initiative at the MBL to create genetically tractable marine model organisms.

Cliff Abraham is a Professor in Psychology at the University of Otago, and co-Leader of the national network the Aotearoa Brain Project-Kaupapa Roro o Aotearoa. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and has been awarded the University of Otago’s Distinguished Research Medal and the Marsden Medal by the NZ Association of Scientists. Professor Abraham’s research focuses on the synaptic plasticity mechanisms of learning and memory in animal models, and therapeutic approaches for mouse models of neurological disorders. Studies in humans have focused on prognostic blood biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease.

Nora Abrous obtained her PhD on intracerebral dopaminergic grafts in the laboratory of Pr Le Moal in Bordeaux under the supervision of Dr JP Herman. With her PhD in her pocket, Nora Abrous spent two years in Cambridge, England, in Dr. Dunnett's laboratory, working on dopaminergic grafts. Upon her return, she began the second part of her career in the late nineties questioned by the hypothesis of the existence of stem cells, which can give rise to new neurons in the adult hippocampus. She directed her work towards a link between memory and adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) and demonstrated i) a physiopathological loop between AHN, cognitive aging and steroids taking into account the existence of inter-individual differences, ii) a causal relationship between AHN & relational memory and pattern separation. She also revealed that AHN plays a pivotal role in the appearance of anxiety-like behavior and contributes to a higher vulnerability to cocaine addiction. In addition, her work focuses on shaping AHN by deleterious (prenatal stress) and positive (learning) life events. More recently, her work focused on the role of AHN and the different waves of developmental neurogenesis in the resilience or vulnerability to develop memory and emotional pathologies

PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1999 at the Autonoma University (Madrid). During this period, my work has focused on the characterization of brain activity in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, using genetic manipulations, electrophysiology and behaviour. In these works, we have identified several tools to increase synapse number in vivo in fly cerebral circuits. After a postdoctoral stage at Dijon (France, 2000-2004), I was awarded with a competitive International grant (European Reintegration Grant, 2004-2007, EC) and a Ramón y Cajal postdoctoral contract, Cajal Institute, CSIC, Madrid (2007-2012). During this period, I have obtained funds from international (European Reintegration Grant-EC, CNRS/CSIC Research Actions ) funding agencies as well as Spanish public (CAM, CSIC) and private (Fundación Ramón Areces, Fundación Reina Sofía/Red CIEN) institutions. As an independent researcher, my scientific interest focused on the identification of the underlying mechanisms modulating synapse number and activity in vivo and their physiological and behavioural consequences, employing the olfactory system of Drosophila but also the mammalian brain in rodent models. From July 2013, I lead a research team (Molecular Mechanisms in Neurodegeneration) at the Institute of Biomedical Technologies (ITB), University of La Laguna. From November 2020, I am a University Full Professor teaching at the School of Medicine and the School of Pharmacy in the University of La Laguna.

I am an assistant professor (Lecturer) and head of the Functional Neurogenomics group at Universitat de Barcelona since March 2021. Before establishing as an independent researcher I pursued postdoctoral training in Pierre Varderhaeghen's lab in Brussels, Guillermo Oliver's lab in Chicago and Jaume Bertranpetit's in Barcelona. My group explores how non-cell autonomous mechanisms shape the human brain in health and disease. To this purpose we use brain organoids derived from iPSCs obtained from healthy and patients of neurological disorderes including epilepsy and Alzheimer's. In my lab, we focus in epigenomics and functional readouts, and we have developed AI-based technologies, including the ImPhenet (Turpin, Modrego et al submitted), to increase the performance of brain organodis models. Through these efforts, we aspire to contribute significantly to the field of neuroscience, offering new insights into neurodegenerative diseases and advancing the development of potential therapeutic strategies.