Jean-Antoine Girault, FENS President – Chair

Jean-Antoine Girault MD, PhD (France)  is an Inserm Research Director. He was the Head of the Institut du Fer à Moulin (Inserm and Sorbonne University) in Paris until September 2020 and director of the Laboratory of Excellence “Biology for Psychiatry” (Bio-Psy Labex, 2012-2020). His research focuses on the signalling mechanisms involved in the plasticity of the nervous system, in normal and pathological conditions. Jean-Antoine Girault has published over 200 research articles. He has received numerous awards and honours, including the Brixham Foundation Prize in 2016, the Lamonica Prize for Neurology (French National Academy of Sciences grand prize) in 2013 and an ERC Advanced Research grant in 2010. Member of various professional committees, President of the French Neuroscience Society in 2015-2017, Jean-Antoine Girault also actively contributed to the coordination of neuroscience research and training in the Paris region. Jean-Antoine Girault is the FENS President for 2020-2022.

Sabine Hölter-Koch, Coordinator of the EBRA cluster PREMOS – speaker

Dr Sabine Hölter-Koch is the Head of the Behavioural Unit at the German Mouse Clinic (GMC) at Helmholtz Munich, Germany. She is a trained behavioural pharmacologist with habilitation in behavioural neuroscience and a lecturer at Technical University Munich. She serves as Coordinator of the EBRA cluster PREMOS, co-lead of the Behaviour & Sensory Workgroup of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC) and as Scientific Communication Coordinator of the COST Action CA20135. Her research focuses on the translational relevance of behavioural and brain phenotypes of genetic mouse models for neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. Her group has worked on neurodevelopmental aspects of phenotypes that are relevant across disorders, phenotype progression over the life time, and on somatic comorbidities of brain disorders. These interests are uniquely supported by the comprehensive phenotyping approach, the focus on robust and reproducible science and the collaborative interdisciplinary work environment of the GMC and IMPC. Sabine Hölter-Koch is a review editor in methods and model organisms for Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience.

Monica Di Luca, European Brain Council President – speaker

Monica Di Luca, EBC President, is Professor of Pharmacology and Head of Laboratory of Pharmacology of Neurodegeneration – DiSFeB at the University of Milano. Her primary research interest is related to synaptic plasticity in physiological and pathological conditions, with the primary aim to apply basic findings to the cure of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease. She has been a member of the Council of several national and international scientific organisations including the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS, President 2014-2016), the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO), EMBO and the European Dana Alliance for the Brain (EDAB).

Thilo van Eimeren, European Cluster for Imaging Biomarkers – speaker

Thilo van Eimeren is a Professor at the Department of Nuclear Medicine & at the Department of Neurology of the Cologne University Hospital. His scientific curiosity is directed at structural and molecular determinants of brain function in health and disease. He is particularly invested in applying and combining molecular and functional imaging methods to understand mechanisms of pathology in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinsonian Disorders and Alzheimer’s disease. He is also highly engaged in the translation of research in his field from basic to clinical science and the deployment of more advanced clinical standards of neuroimaging. For example, he coordinates national and international groups for the harmonization of imaging standards and organises a biannual symposium on translational multimodal imaging in neurodegeneration (MINC symposium).