News Details

15-Year Anniversary: International Brain Week

Highly topical findings from the area of brain research will be offered during International Brain Week from 11th to 18th March in Basel. At various public events the complexity of brain functions will be shown and contemporary issues will be discussed. On Friday 16th March, two scientists from the Biozentrum of the University of Basel will present their research findings on the subject of «Neural Stem Cells in Brain Development».

The brain consists of an enormous number of nerve cells. These nerve cells are generated from neural stem cells during brain development. But how to bring the neural stem cells forth into the right neural cell types, in the right amount and how are they connected into networks? Professor Clemens Cabernard of the Biozentrum, University of Basel, uses the example of the fruit fly to approach the answer to these questions using new findings which can be applied to more complex animals or humans.

Cabernard’s lecture «Insights into the Evolution of the Human Brain using Studies in the Fruit Fly Drosophila melanogaster» will be held on Friday 16th March at 19:30 in the large auditorium of the ZLF (Center for Teaching & Research) of the University Hospital of Basel, Hebelstrasse 20 in Basel. Admission is free. After the lecture, Professor Suzana Atanasoski from the Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel will present a lecture entitled “From Stem Cells to Complex Neural Networks”. The lectures will provide an opportunity to understand and to join in the discussion. The event will be chaired by Professor Heinrich Reichert, a Group Research Leader of the Biozentrum, University of Basel.

The International Brain Week is held annually in March on a worldwide basis, and this time in Europe for the 15th time. The lectures at the University of Basel will be held from Monday 12th to Friday 16th March and each will start at 19:30 at the ZLF. Admission is free. Parallel to this, other events are to be held at the Anatomical Museum Basel, at the Literature House Basel, at the Center for Mood, Stress & Sleep Disorders (ZASS) of the University Psychiatric Clinic, at Philosophicum and at the Café Scientifique.

The Program can be found at:
http://www.neuronetwork.unibas.ch/brainweek12/WdG2012_Basel.pdf

For further information:
http://www.neuronetwork.unibas.ch/brainweek12/