9:00 AM Welcome

Mini-symposium of the Gut Microbiome-Nervous System Axis

9:30     Insights into the enteric nervous system: perspectives from a gut stem cell biologist
Annie Zemper, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Oregon

10:00    Environmental challenges, the gut microbiome, and behavioral and cognitive measures in mouse models
Jacob Raber, Ph.D., Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, OHSU

10:30    Microbial modulation of zebrafish behavior and brain development
Judith Eisen, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, University of Oregon

11:00    Emerging roles of gut microbiome in autism
Maude David, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Microbiology, Oregon State University

11:30    Talks from abstracts

12 noon    Lunch break

1:00    An eye on neurogenesis: Exploring how retinal progenitors transition from proliferation to differentiation in the developing zebrafish visual system
Kara Cerveny, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, Reed College

1:30    Talks from abstracts

3:00    Break

3:15    Understanding functional architecture and neuromodulation of brain circuits using connectomic and novel imaging approaches
Tianyi Mao, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Vollum Institute, OHSU

3:45    Talks from abstracts

4:00    Poster session

5:00 KEYNOTE: How genes and bacteria shape the risk of neuroinflammatory disease: The example of Multiple Sclerosis
Sergio Baranzini, Ph.D., Professor of Neurology, UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences

6:00    Awards and closing

Students and postdoctoral scholars are encouraged to submit abstracts for the poster session and oral presentations. Abstracts should be sent to Larry Sherman, Ph.D., by Thursday, April 1, 2021.

The format of the virtual poster session is to be determined. 

The Gut Immune Connection and How it Affects the Brain

From one of today’s leading experts on the emerging science of the microbiome comes a ground-breaking evidence that the gut-microbiome plays a pivotal role in the health crises of the twenty-first century.

April 7, 2021
7:00 p.m.

At this special Science on Tap we will be joined by physician, UCLA professor, and researcher Dr. Emeran Mayer. In his acclaimed book, The Mind-Gut Connection, Dr. Mayer offered evidence of the critical role of the microbiome in neurological and cognitive health, proving once and for all the power and legitimacy of the “mind-body connection.” In his new book The Gut-Immune Connection, he proposes an even more radical paradigm shift: that the gut microbiome is at the center of virtually every disease that defines our 21st-century public health crisis. 

Join us as Dr. Mayer discusses evidence that the “conversation” that takes place between these microbes and our various organs and bodily systems is critical to human health. When that conversation goes awry, we suffer, often becoming seriously ill. Combining clinical experience with up-to-the-minute science, he will discuss the link between alterations to the gut microbiome and cognitive and mental health, as well as the development chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, as well as susceptibility to infectious diseases like Covid-19.

This event is being held in collaboration with the annual conference of the Society for Neuroscience Oregon/SW Washington Chapter.