First Genome Dynamics in Neuroscience Meeting

Large auditorium, Rikshospitalet, Oslo April 26-29 2006

Wednesday April 26

18:00 Reception at Oslo City Hall hosted by the Mayor of Oslo

20:00 Dinner for invited speakers (and accompanying partners) at D/S Louise Restaurant, Aker Brygge, Stranden 3

Thursday April 27

9:00 Welcome – Tone Tønjum

Session "Ageing"

9:05 Opening lecture
Vilhelm A. Bohr, National Institute on Aging, NIH, Baltimore, USA
DNA repair and neurodegeneration

10-15 min talks with 5 min discussion

9:35 Nadja Souza-Pinto, NIA US
Mitochondrial base exicision repair in mice and humans

9:50 K Subba Rao, Hyderabad University
DNA repair in the aging brain

Session "DNA repair I "

10:10 Ken Kraemer, NIH US
Xeroderma pigmentosum, trichothiodystrophy and Cockayne syndrome - bridging a gap between clinic and laboratory

10:30 Thierry Nouspikel, Sheefield University UK
DNA repair in differentiated cells

10:50-11:20 Coffee break

Session "DNA repair II"

11:20 Hans Krokan, University of Trondheim
Base excision repair as part of a complex cellular defence system

11:40 Susan LeDoux, University of South Alabama
Mitochondrial DNA repair: A critical player in the response of cells of the CNS to genotoxic insults

12:00 Magnar Bjørås, CMBN
Base excision repair of oxidative DNA damage

12:20– 13:30 Lunch / Posters

Session "DNA repair III"

13:30 David Wilson III, NIA, NIH
Base excision repair and the central nervous system

13:50 Robert Fuchs, Marseilles
Translesion synthesis: switching between replicative and specialized DNA polymerases

14:10 Pål Falnes , University of Oslo and CMBN
Repair of methyl lesions in DNA and RNA by oxidative demethylation

14:30 – 15:00 Coffee break

Session "DNA repair IV"

Convenor: Tinna Stevnsner

15:00 P. J. Brooks, NIH
The case for cyclopurines as neurodegenerative DNA lesions in Xeroderma Pigmentosum

15:20 Keith Caldecott, Brighton
Function of CNS protein in BER

15:40 Xianmin Zeng, Buck Institute
Long term stability of human embryonic stem cells

16:00 – 19:00 Long break – Sight-seeing and relaxation

19:00 Festive buffet dinner at Rikshospitalet

20:30 – 22:00 Poster session at Rikshospitalet

Friday April 28

Session "Genome instability I "

9:00 Cynthia McMurray, Mayo Clinic
Faulty repair: age-dependent triplet expansions in human disease

9:20 Jan Vijg, Buck Institute, San Antonio
Genome instability, transcriptional noise and aging

9:40 Arne Klungland, CMBN
Genome instability and DNA damage accumulation in gene-targeted mice

10:00 Ole Petter Ottersen, CMBN
Maintaining brain water homeostasis

10:20 George Garinis, Netherlands
Mice models with genome instability and neurodegeneration

10:20-10:50 Coffee break

Session "Genome instability II"

10:50 Jean Marc Egly, Strasbourg
DNA repair and transcription in brain

11:10 George Garinis , Netherlands
Mice models with genome instability and neurodegeneration

11:25 Sigve Nakken, CMBN
Single nucleotide polymorphisms in human DNA repair genes and predictions of their phenotypic effects

11:40 – 12:00 General discussion
Convenor: Vilhelm A. Bohr

12:00 -13:00 Lunch

Session "Environmental factors and neurological disease I "

Convenor: Magnar Bjørås

13:00 Don Ingram, NIA, NIH
Calorie restriction in nonhuman primates: Assessing effects on brain and behavioral aging

13:20 Raymond Swanson, UCSF
The role of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 in CNS disease

13:40 Martin Lavin, Brisbane
A subgroup of spinocerebellar ataxias defective in DNA damage response

14:00 – 14:30 Coffee break

Session "Environmental factors and neurological disease II"

14:30 Peter J. McKinnon, Memphis
Responding to DNA double strand breaks in the nervous system

14:50 Tone Tønjum
Prokaryotic models for genome instability in neurodegenerative diseases

Session "Excitotoxicity, oxidative stress and DNA damage in relation to amino acid neurotransmission I"

15:05 Niels Christian Danbolt, CMBN
Evolution of glutamate transporters

15:20 Johan Storm, CMBN
Potassium channels in neurological disease

15:35 Jan Bjaalie, CMBN
Systems biology in neuroscience - neuroinformatics and bioinformatics linking basic biology and clinical medicine

15:50 – 16:30 Panel discussion - Attwell, Bohr, Lavin, Krokan, Ottersen

16:30 – 17:30 Poster session

19:30 Festive dinner at Holmenkollen Park Hotel (bus leaves SAS Scandinavian Radisson Hotel at 19:15, return to hotel at 23:30)

Saturday April 29

Session "Excitotoxicity, oxidative stress and DNA damage in relation to amino acid neurotransmission II"

9:00 David Attwell, University College London
Neurotransmitter receptors in the life and death of oligodendrocytes

9:30 Farrukh A Chaudhry, Biotechnology Center of Oslo and CMBN
Heterogeneity among Amino Acid Transporter Orthologues

9:45 Jon Storm-Mathisen, CMBN
Amino acid mediated neurotransmission in mice with deficient DNA repair

10:00 Linda H Bergersen, CMBN
Food for brains - Is lactate protective against brain damage?

10:15 – 10:45 Coffee break

Session “Genome dynamics in neuroscience”

10:45 Stefan Krauss, CMBN
Genome maintenance in stem cells

11:00 Peisu Zhang, NIH
Telomere molecular dynamics and DNA damage responses in neural cells

11:15 John A. Tainer, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla
WRN exonuclease structure, molecular mechanisms, and DNA end processing role

11:30 Concluding remarks – Vilhelm A. Bohr and Ole Petter Ottersen

11:40 Meeting ends

11:40 – 12:30 Lunch