Professor Xiang-Tong Zhang (Hsiang-Tung Chang), academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Honorary Director of the Institute of Neuroscience, CAS, passed away at 15:45 hours on November 4th, 2007, in Shanghai at the age of 101.
On October 17th, the Journal of Neuroscience published an ION finding entitled “Activity-dependent development of callosal projections in the somatosensory cortex”. This work was conducted primarily by graduate students Chun-Lei Wang and Lei Zhang in Dr. Ding’s laboratory, with collaborations from Dr. Xiong and Dr. Duan’s laboratories at ION.
On October 10th, the Journal of Neuroscience published an article from ION entitled “Upregulation of acid-sensing ion channel ASIC1a in spinal dorsal horn neurons contributes to inflammatory pain hypersensitivity”. This work was done by graduate students Bo Duan with Long-Jun Wu and colleagues under the supervision of Prof. Tian-Le Xu.
Dr. You-Sheng Shu was invited to attend the 3rd International Workshop on Epileptic Seizure Prediction held in Freiburg, Germany, September 29th to October 2nd. During the session on “From Single Cells to Complex Networks II: Experimental Approaches, Single Cells and Small Networks in Slices”,
The Institute of Neuroscience (ION), Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is initiating a new drive for recruitment of laboratory heads at the Investigator and Senior Investigator level. Since its founding in 1999, ION has aimed to implement the infrastructure of a modern research institute that provides an environment for rigorous scientific pursuit and fruitful interactions,
Dr. Zhi-Qi Xiong was invited to visit the Queensland Brain Institute at the University of Queensland in Australia from August 26th to 30th. During his visit, Dr. Xiong gave an invited talk entitled "Regulation of dendritic growth and synaptic plasticity by transducers of regulated CREB (TORCs)".
Drs. Xu Zhang and Tian-Le Xu were invited to attend the Second International Conference for Neurons and Brain Disease held in Toronto, August 29th to 31st. During the session on “Synapses, Sensory and Pain”,
On August 2nd, Dr. Aike Guo visited the RIKEN Brain Research Institute (BSI) and gave a lecture entitled “Cognition-like Activities in Drosophila Brain” in the BSI’s International Summer Program, aimed at training advanced graduate students interested in brain function.
Prof. Li Jia-Yang, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in charge of biological sciences, visited ION on July 26, accompanied by Prof. Kang Le (Director of the Bureau of Life Science & Biotechnology at CAS) and Mr. Hua Ren-Chang (Acting Director of CAS Shanghai Branch).
Dr. Shumin Duan organized and chaired the symposium on “Purine mediated neuron-glia interactions: physiological and pathological relevance” at the 2007 IBRO (International Brain Research Organization) World Congress of Neuroscience held between July 12th and 17th in Melbourne, Australia.
On July 19th, Neuron published an article from ION entitled “Rapsyn Interaction with Calpain Stabilizes AChR Clusters at the Neuromuscular Junction”. This study was conducted in the Laboratory of Synaptic Signaling, mainly by graduate students Fei Chen and Lei Qian under the supervision of Dr. Zhen-Ge Luo.
Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is not only the most important energy carrier inside the cell, but also a universal extracellular signaling molecule. Astrocytes, the most abundant glial cell type in the brain, have been found to release signaling molecules, including ATP, which mediates inter-astrocytic as well as neuronal-astrocytic interactions. Unlike in neurons and secretory cells,
On June 29th, Science published a report from ION entitled “Dopamine-Mushroom Body Circuit Regulates Saliency-Based Decision Making in Drosophila”. This study was conducted in the Laboratory of Learning & Memory, by graduate students Ke Zhang, Jian-zeng Guo, Yue-qing Peng and Xi Wang under the supervision of Dr. Ai-ke Guo
Dr. Shu-min Duan was invited to attend the Gordon Research Conference on “Excitatory Synapses & Brain Function” at Colby-Sawyer College, held June 10th to 15th. During the session on “Glia and Synaptic Function”, Dr. Duan gave an invited talk entitled “Plasticity of Neuron-glia signaling”.
Dr. Xu Zhang was invited to attend the Second International Congress on Neuropathic Pain held in Berlin, June 7th to 10th. During the session on “Molecular and Synaptic Mechanisms for Neuropathic Pain”,
