Patterning and Cell Type Specification in the Developing CNS and PNS

Dr. Rubenstein is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. He also serves as a Nina Ireland Distinguished Professor in Child Psychiatry at the Nina Ireland Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology. His research focuses on the regulatory genes that orchestrate development of the forebrain. Dr. Rubenstein's lab has demonstrated the role of specific genes in regulating neuronal specification, differentiation, migration and axon growth during embryonic development and on through adult life. His work may help to explain some of the mechanisms underlying human neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism. Dr. Rakic is currently at the Yale School of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience, where his main research interest is in the development and evolution of the human brain. After obtaining his MD from the University of Belgrade School of Medicine, his research career began in 1962 with a Fulbright Fellowship at Harvard University after which he obtained his graduate degrees in Developmental Biology and Genetics. He held a faculty position at Harvard Medical School for 8 years prior to moving to Yale University, where he founded and served as Chair of the Department of Neurobiology for 37 years, and also founder and director of the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience. In 2015, he returned to work full-time on his research projects, funded by US Public Health Services and various private foundations. He is well known for his studies of the development and evolution of the brain, in particular his discovery of basic cellular and molecular mechanisms of proliferation and migration of neurons in the cerebral cortex. He was president of the Society for Neuroscience and popularized this field with numerous lectures given in over 35 counties. In 2008, Rakic shared the inaugural Kavli Prize in Neuroscience with Thomas Jessell and Stan Grillner. He is currently the Dorys McConell Duberg Professor of Neuroscience and serves on Advisory Boards and Scientific Councils of a number of Institutions and Research Foundations. Dr. Chen is Professor of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Research in her laboratory focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the generation of diverse cell types in the brain, and the assembly of these cell types into functional neural circuits. Dr. Chen completed her graduate study with Dr. Sidney Strickland at Stony Brook University-SUNY, and her post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Susan McConnell at Stanford University. She has 22 years of experience in genetics and developmental neurobiology research. Her laboratory has been funded by the March of Dimes Foundation, California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, and National Institute of Health. Dr. Kwan is Assistant Professor of Human Genetics and Research Assistant Professor in the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute at the University of Michigan Medical School. Research in his laboratory is aimed at the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie normal neural circuit assembly in the cerebral cortex and their dysregulation in human neurodevelopmental disorders, in particular autism spectrum disorder, fragile X syndrome, and schizophrenia. Dr. Kwan completed his graduate and post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Nenad Sestan at Yale School of Medicine. He has 14 years of experience in developmental neurobiology research and his worked has been recognized by awards from the Brain Research Foundation, March of Dimes Foundation, Simons Foundation, and Cajal Club.

I: INDUCTION AND PATTERNING OF THE CNS AND PNS

1. Morphogens, Patterning Centers, and their Mechanisms of Action

Edwin Shinichi Monuki

2. Telencephalon Patterning

Shubha Tole and Jean Hébert

3. Area Patterning of the Mammalian Neocortex

Elizabeth A. Grove

4. Patterning of Thalamus

Guillermina López-Bendito

5. Midbrain Patterning: Polarity Formation of the Tectum, Midbrain Regionalization, and Isthmus Organizer

Harukazu Nakamura

6. Cerebellar Patterning

Hitoshi Komuro

7. Spinal Cord Patterning

Catarina Catela

8. The Formation and Maturation of Neuromuscular Junctions

Gregorio Valdez

9. Neural Induction of Embryonic Stem/Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Anindita Sarkar, Maria Carol Marchetto and Fred H. Gage

10. Cerebral organoids

Orly Reiner and Eyal Karzburn

11. Formation of gyri and sulci

Katherine Long and Wieland B. Huttner

II: GENERATION OF NEURONAL DIVERSITY

12. Cell Biology of Neuronal Progenitor Cells

Qin Shen

13. Notch and Neural Development

Joshua J. Breunig

14. bHLH Factors in Neurogenesis and Neuronal Subtype Specification

Jane Johnson

15. The Specification and Generation of Neurons in the Ventral Spinal Cord

Michael Matise and Kamal Sharma

16. Neurogenesis in the Cerebellum

Kathleen J Millen

17. The Generation of Midbrain Dopaminergic Neurons

Sandra Blaess and Siew-Lan Ang

18. Neurogenesis in the Basal Ganglia

Kenneth James Campbell

19. Specification of Cortical Projection Neurons: Transcriptional Mechanisms

Jeffrey D. Macklis

20. The Generation of Cortical Interneurons

Gordon Fishell and Renata Batista-Brito

21. Specification of Retinal Cell Types

Bernadett Bosze, Robert B. Hufnagel and Nadean L. Brown

22. Neurogenesis in the Postnatal VZ-SVZ and the Origin of Interneuron Diversity

Arturo Alvarez-Buylla

23. Neurogenesis in the Damaged Mammalian Brain

Masato Nakafuku

24. Neurogenesis in the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

Oliver Hobert

25. Development of the Drosophila melanogaster embryonic CNS: From neuroectoderm to unique neurons and glia

Stefan Thor

26. Neurogenesis in Zebrafish

Laure Bally-Cuif

27. Gene regulatory networks controlling neuronal diversity: epigenetics/lncRNAs/enhancers

Jason T. Lambert, Jessica Haigh and Alex S. Nord

28. Post-transcriptional and translational control of neurogenesis

Debra Silver

29. Human neurogenesis: single cell sequencing and in vitro modeling (cerebral organoids)

Arnold Kriegstein, Aparna Bhaduri and Madeline Andrews

III: DEVELOPMENT OF GLIA, BLOOD VESSELS, CHOROID PLEXUS, IMMUNE CELLS IN THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

30. ‘Glial’ Biology: Has it Come to the Beginning of the End?

David Rowitch and Arturo Alvarez-Buylla

31. Neural Stem Cells Among Glia

Arnold Kriegstein and Arturo Alvarez-Buylla

32. Structure and Function of Myelinated Axons

Matthew Rasband

33. Mechanisms of Astrocyte Development

Debosmita Sardar, Anna Victoria Molofsky and Benjamin Deneen

34. Specification of Macroglia by Transcription Factors: Oligodendrocytes

Michael Wegner

35. Specification of Macroglia by Transcription Factors: Schwann Cells

John Svaren

36. Signaling Pathways that Regulate Glial Development and Early Migration – Oligodendrocytes

Stephen Fancy and Robert H. Miller

37. Signaling Pathways that Regulate Glial Development and Early Migration – Schwann Cells

Kristjan R. Jessen and Rhona Mirsky

38. Microglia

Astrid E. Cardona, Katerina Akassoglou and Dimitrios Davalos

39. Ependymal cells

Kazunobu Sawamoto and Nathalie Spassky

40. Meninges and Vasculature

Julie Siegenthaler and Samuel Pleasure

41. Neuron–Glial Interactions: Neurotransmitter Signaling to Cells of the Oligodendrocyte Lineage

Dwight Bergles

42. Nonmammalian Model Systems: Zebrafish

Bruce Appel and Kelly Monk

43. Astrocyte-Synapse Interactions and Neural Circuit Regulation

Nicola Allen

in Glial Biology: Imaging Neuroglial Pathology In Vivo