SANS Symposium 2014

The Southern African Neurosciences Society hosted a one-day symposium on the 13^th of July, to highlight recent achievements in basic and clinical neuroscience. We invited contributions not only from Africa but also the major neuroscience research centres in the world. This event provided the opportunity to network and meet fellow neuroscientists with the aim of setting up collaborations between neuroscience researchers in Africa and elsewhere in the world.

CPD Accredited – 6 General points in level 1 for full day attendance

DATE & TIME: 13^th July @ 8h30 – 18h00

COST: SANS symposium registration R150

VENUE: Institute of Infectious Diseases & Molecular Medicine (IDM), Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Anzio Road, Observatory

Event Photos

 

SANS SYMPOSIUM PROGRAMME 2014

08h30 – 09h30 On-site registration – name tag collection

08h30 – 09h00 All poster presenters to place posters up

09h00 – 09h30 Poster viewing

WOLFSON LECTURE THEATRE

09h30 – 10h00 OPENING & WELCOME SANS Symposium

10h00 – 10h50

Plenary lecture 1: Sex, Stress and the Brain: Hormone Actions Outside of the Hypothalamus Via Novel Mechanisms

Professor Bruce McEwen

“Dr Bruce S. McEwen is the Alfred E. Mirsky Professor and Head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at The Rockefeller University. As a neuroscientist and neuroendocrinologist, Dr McEwen studies environmentally regulated variable gene expression in the brain mediated by circulating steroid hormones and endogenous neurotransmitters in relation to brain sexual differentiation, and the actions of sex, stress, and thyroid hormones on the adult brain. His laboratory discovered adrenal steroid receptors in the hippocampus in 1968, paving the way for the study of steroid hormone actions beyond the hypothalamus and to an understanding of the important roles that they play in many cognitive functions. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and served as President of the Society for Neuroscience from 1997 to 1998. In addition, he served on the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health and is a member of the National Council on the Developing Child.

He is the co-author of two books (The End of Stress as We Know It, co-authored with Elizabeth Lasley, and The Hostage Brain, co-authored with Harold M. Schmeck, Jr, published in 2002 and 1994, respectively).”

Excerpt from: Interview with Bruce S. McEwen (2013). Trends Neurosci 36(4):207-8.

S01: Postgraduate and Postdoctoral fellow presentations

Talk specifications: 15 minutes with 5 minutes available for questions/discussion. 

S01.1: Talk Withdrawn

11h00 – 11h20

S01.2: Evaluating a new drug to combat Alzheimer’s disease

Sibiya SG, Mabandla MV, Daniels WMU

Discipline of Human Physiology, School Of Laboratory Medicine and Medical Sciences, University Of  KwaZulu-Natal(*SANS travel award recipient)

11h20 – 11h40

S01.3: Establishing a model for studying the potential neuroprotective effects of plant-derived compounds on  oxidative stress-induced neurotoxicity in vitro.

Solomons DE, Klaasen J, Ekpo O, Fielding BC, McBride, R.

Department of Medical Biosciences, University of the Western Cape

11h40 – 12h00

S01.4: Developmental stress increases conditioned place preference for methamphetamine in an animal model of  attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Womersley JS, Mpeta B, Stein DJ, Kellaway LA, Russell VA

Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town

12h00 – 12h20

S01.5: Excitatory effects of parvalbumin-expressing interneurons sustain seizure activity via synchronous  afterdischarges

Raimondo JV*, Ellender TJ*, Irkle, I, Akerman CJ (*contributed equally)

Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town

12h20 – 13h30 LUNCH & POSTER VIEWING

13h30 – 14h20

Plenary lecture 2: Novel Dendritic Cells in the Central Nervous System: steady state, aging and disease

Research Associate Professor Karen Bulloch

 

Dr. Bulloch is the Director of the Neuroimmunology and Inflammation Program which is affiliated with the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology. The overall goal of Dr. Bulloch’s program is to elucidate the role of the immune system during brain development, aging and following immune challenge   which will contribute to our identification of new targets for therapeutic intervention.  Dr. Bulloch, and her program’s scientists, focus on the role that diverse immune-cell populations play in brain development, aging and during brain damage and neurological diseases.  Using the CD11c/EYFP transgenic and wild type mice, Dr. Bulloch and colleagues discovered novel sets of dendritic cells, collectively referred to as brain dendritic cells (bDC), in discrete regions of the neonatal, young, adult and aging CNS.  They have further characterized bDC following seizures, stroke and virally-induced encephalitis and shown that phenotypically and functionally subsets are recruited to the regions of brain damage, some of which express lineage marker of both natural killer and dendritic cell.  Additional characterization of bDC found in the hypothalamus, pituitary stalk and anterior pituitary indicate that these cells are also capable of mediating the neuroendocrine feedback loop during the immune responses to endotoxin and vestibular stomatitis virus. http://lab.rockefeller.edu/mcewen/neuroimmunology

S02: Postgraduate and Postdoctoral fellow presentations

Talk specifications: 15 minutes with 5 minutes available for questions/discussion.

 

14h30 – 14h50

S02.1: Biomarkers of neurological injury and inflammation in children with Tuberculous meningitis

Rohlwink UK, Wilkinson KA, Padayachy LP, Wilkinson RJ, Fieggen AF, Figaji AA

Paediatric Neurosurgery Unit, Division of Neurosurgery, University of Cape Town

 

S02.2: Talk withdrawn

14h50 – 15h10

S02.3: Comparisons of cortical silent period between methamphetamine induced psychosis, schizophrenia and healthy controls

Hsieh J, Stein DJ, Howells FM

Department of Psychiatry, University of Cape Town

15h10 – 15h30

S02.4: What drives ultra-endurance athletes: Psychological and Genetic factors

van Breda K, Rauch L, Collins M

Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town

15h30 – 15h50

S02.5: Differences in obese, overweight and normal weight women: behavioural and electrophysiological responses to visual food stimuli

Hume DJ¹, Howells FM², Rauch L¹, Kroff J¹, Lambert EV¹

¹MRC/UCT Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town;²Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town

 

15h50 – 16h40

Plenary lecture 3: The Neural Circuitry of Recovery from Traumatic Fear

Professor Andrew Holmes

Andrew Holmes, Ph.D., Laboratory Chief, Principal Investigator, Laboratory of Behavioral and Genomic Neuroscience, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The Laboratory of Behavioral and Genomic Neuroscience’s mission is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the causes of alcoholism and comorbid neuropsychiatric conditions such as mood and anxiety disorders.  Our goal is to help identify new directions for the prevention and effective treatment of these devastating diseases. To this end, Prof Holmes and his group are using models of chronic alcohol exposure and chronic stress to examine how these environmental insults reshape brain circuits to modify behavior, and why they do so in a manner that varies greatly from individual to individual as a function of genetics, sex and age.  A major current focus of Dr Holmes’ work is how alcohol and stress affect the structure and function of circuits interconnecting the prefrontal cortex with limbic and dorsal striatal regions that are critical for the regulation of emotion, cognition and executive control over drug-seeking.

 

16h50 – 17h20 SANS conference liaison: Dr Sian Hemmings – Closing comments and thanks

Awards presented: Travel Awards and Young Scientist Award for best oral presentation

17h30 – 18h00 All posters to be taken down from poster boards

18h00 – 18h30 SANS AGM all members welcome to participate in the meeting

 

POSTERS AND POSTER NUMBERS

Poster specifications: Size 145 cm height by 125cm width, to be pinned up (pins will be provided)

P01: Changes in hippocampal proteins involved in glutamate and GABA transmission following early life stress in a rat model of ADHD, the spontaneously hypertensive rat

Sterley T-L, Howells FM, Russell VA

Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town

 

P02: Characterization of maternal separation as a model for depression in rodents

Swart PC, Dimatelis JJ, Marais L, Russell VA

Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town

 

P03: Chronic constant light alters dopamine and serotonin activity in the rat brain (*SANS travel award recipient)

Mtintsilana A, Dimatelis JJ, Russell VA

Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town

 

P04: The effect of voluntary exercise on neurogenesis in maternally separated rats

Hardcastle NS, Marais L, Russell VA, Lang DM

Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town

 

P05: The role of high active antiretroviral therapy again the toxic effects of HIV-1 TAT protein in the hippocampus

Zulu SS, Mabandla MV, Daniels WMU

Discipline Of Human Physiology, School Of Laboratory Medicine and Medical Sciences, University Of KwaZulu-Natal

 

P06: Serotonin transporter gene variants are associated with increased risk of suicide in an HIV-positive Ugandan population

Hemmings SMJ¹, Kalungi A², Seedat S¹, Joloba M³, Kinyanda E^4,5

¹Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, South Africa;²Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity, Makerere University; ³Department of Medical Microbiology, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University; ⁴Department of Psychiatry, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University; ⁵Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute, Research Unit on AiDS

 

P07: The genetic aetiology of anxiety proneness

Benecke RM¹, Martin L², Seedat S², Hemmings SMJ²

¹Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics, Stellenbosch University, ²Department of Psychiatry, Stellenbosch University

 

P08: Neuropsychological deficits in social anxiety disorder in the context of early developmental trauma

Rosenstein D, Bakelaar SY, Zwart J, Bishop M, Seedat S

Department of Psychiatry, Stellenbosch University

 

P09: Multiple sclerosis as a complication of malaria in a Nigerian patient: A case report

van Rensburg SJ¹, van Toorn R², Cronje F³ , Oguniyi A⁴, Kotze M⁵

¹ Chemical Pathology, NHLS and Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa, ² Paediatric Medicine and Child Health, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa, ³ Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa, ⁴ Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, ⁵ Anatomical Pathology, NHLS and Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa

 

P10: Candidate susceptibility in anxiety disorders: a gene-environment correlation, and -interaction (GxE) study

McGregor NW^{1, 4}, Dimatelis J², Kinnear C⁴, Russell V², Stein D^{3, 5},  Hemmings SMJ^{1, 4}, Lochner C^{1, 3}

¹Department of Psychiatry, University of Stellenbosch; ²Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town;³Department of Psychiatry, MRC Unit on Anxiety and Stress Disorders, University of Stellenbosch; ⁴Department of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics, University of Stellenbosch; ⁵ Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health,

University of Cape Town

 

P11: Clinical relevance of APOE genotyping based on a family history of Alzheimer’s disease among participants in a chronic disease screening program

Lückhoff HK¹, van Rensburg SJ², van Velden DP¹, Kotze MJ¹

¹Division of Anatomical Pathology, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Stellenbosch, Tygerberg, ²Division of Chemical Pathology, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University and National Health Laboratory Service, Tygerberg Hospital, Tygerberg, South Africa

 

P12: Delineating psychotic disorders by use of proton magnetic resonance imaging (1H-MRS)

Howells FM, Hsieh J, Temmingh H, Stein DJ

Department of Psychiatry, University of Cape Town

 

P13: Promoting cortical inhibition to enhance attention networks in psychotic disorders: A TMS-EEG study

van Dijen AV, Hsieh J, Temmingh H, Stein DJ, Howells FM

Department of Psychiatry, University of Cape Town