Transport processes in the CNS:
Emerging concepts

18-24 May, 2005, Oslo, Norway

This symposium is the kickoff meeting of the newly established Nordic Centre of Excellence for Research in Water Imbalance Related Disorders (WIRED) and is open also for the Gaustad Neuroscience Network (GNN) and the Centre for Molecular Biology and Neuroscience (CMBN).

The Nordic Centre of Excellence Programme in Molecular Medicine is a joint venture between the Joint Committee of the Nordic Medical Research Councils (NOS-M), the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Nordic Academy for Advanced Study (NorFA, which is now part of NorForsk).

The meeting will highlight recent advances in our understanding of the physiology and pathophysiology of transmembrane transport processes in the brain. There will be a focus on ion, water, and transmitter transport in the CNS, with a special emphasis on quantitative aspects of glial cell function. Furthermore, we will highlight the growing evidence that transmembrane transport is critically involved in pathological hyperactivity and epilepsy, brain edema formation, and neurodegeneration. The meeting will be of interest to researchers in the fields of cell biology and neurobiology, and to clinicians and researchers in neurology, nephrology, and other clinical disciplines.

The organizers would like to thank Pfizer AS, GlaxoSmithKline AS and H. Lundbeck AS for generous support of this meeting.

Program

Wednesday, 18 May

OPEN LECTURE at 10:00-11:00 in Store auditorium, Rikshospitalet:

Peter Agre (Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, USA):
Water transport and aquaporins: from molecules to medicine

Friday, 20 May

OPEN LECTURE at 14.00-15.00 in Store Auditorium, Rikshospitalet:

Bert Sakmann (Max-Planck Institute, Heidelberg, Germany):
Cortical microcircuits in rat cortex and sparse coding of sensory representation

Monday, 23 May

SYMPOSIUM in Grønt auditorium, Rikshospitalet:

10:00 Svend Davanger (University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway): Opening remarks

10:15 Eric Newman (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA): Conversations between neurons, glia and blood vessels in the retina

10:45 Walter F Boron (Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, USA): Regulation of Intracellular pH regulation in cultured hippocampal neurons

11:15 Coffee break

11.30 Kai Kaila (University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland): Ionic plasticity of GABAergic transmission

12.00 Otto Witte (Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena, Germany): Role of the astrocytic network in brain water regulation

12.30 Lunch

13 .30 Olaf Paulsson (Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen): Filtration and diffusion of water across the blood-brain barrier - tracer kinetic studies

14.00 Antonio Frigeri (University of Bari, Italy): Interaction of AQP4 with the dystrophin complex in brain

14.30 Coffee break

14.45 Wolfgang Sattler (Medical University Graz, Graz, Austria: LXR- and PPAR-agonists are regulators of lipid-flux at the blood-brain barrier

15.15 Antoine Triller (Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France): Single molecule imaging at synapses: the deconstruction of our certitudes

15.45 Jon Storm-Mathisen (University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway): The cycling of glutamate

16.15 End of session