About the Conference
The nervous system contains several hundred neuronal subtypes and glial cells with specific gene expression pattern defining each of these cell types. Indeed, a large number of neurological diseases are the consequence of an inappropriate cell fate commitment. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the regulatory mechanisms involved in the establishment of specific transcriptional programs defining distinct cell types during nervous system development. Though this field is rapidly expanding and the implications of this knowledge for development and disease are enormous.
The cell fate commitment in the nervous system relies on the timely establishment of cell type specific transcriptional program. Furthermore, misregulation in the gene regulatory circuitry underlying nervous system development has been observed in many neurological diseases. A number of transcription factors and ‘epigenetic’ modifications are increasingly being implicated in defining these gene expression programs and therefore cellular diversity during nervous system development.
We aim to organize this EMBO Conference to comprehensively discuss these players and mechanisms which will cover the following topics in the context of their function in neural fate specification:
- Histone modifications
- Modifications of DNA
- Noncoding genome
- Chromatin remodeling
- Function of distal regulatory elements
- Nuclear organization
- Single cell transcriptome and epigenome
- Systems biology
- Novel mechanisms, molecular tools and approaches
This EMBO Conference will provide participants with an introduction to the key discoveries and fundamental concepts in gene regulatory mechanisms in neural fate decisions, access to the latest results, ideas and open questions as well as an outlook into the future of this field. The conference will also promote young scientists to interact with pioneers in the field and learn about the latest developments from those driving them. The interdisciplinary nature of the conference would further facilitate establishment of new connections and collaborations between labs.
About EMBO Courses and Workshops
EMBO Courses and Workshops are selected for their excellent scientific quality and timelines, provision of good networking activities for all participants and speaker gender diversity (at least 40% of speakers must be from the underrepresented gender).
Organisers are encouraged to implement measures to make the meeting environmentally more sustainable.
