Program
11th European Conference of Comparative Neurobiology
Alicante, Spain
May 6-8, 2025
Day 1 – Tuesday May, 6
8:30 – 9:00
Registration
9:00– 9:30
Welcome and opening remarks
Víctor Borrell
9:30 – 10:30
Keynote talk
Gilles Laurent
Evolutionary perspectives on circuits for vision and sleep
10:30 – 11:00
Coffee break
11:00 – 12:30
(1) Development of aquatic brains
Eve Seuntjens
Development of neural cell diversity in the common octopus
Idoia Quintana-Urzainqui
The catshark embryo as a model to study the origin and evolution of the vertebrate telencephalon
Corinne Houart
Forebrain evolution through the lens of 3D organisation of embryonic progenitor identities
12:30 – 14:30
Lunch
14:30 – 16:00
(2) Evolution of brain development
Tadashi Nomura
Changes in conserved developmental mechanisms underlie mammalian and non-mammalian-specific pallial structures
Fernando Garcia-Moreno
Variations in developmental neurogenesis that impacted the evolution of the forebrain
Víctor Borrell
Evolutionary convergence and divergence of cortical neurogenesis
16:00 – 16:30
Coffee break
16:30 – 17:30
(3) Evolution of genomic regulation
Nuria Flames
Gene regulatory mechanisms underlying evolutionary adaptations of homologous neuronal cell types
Eduardo Leyva
Programming and reprogramming the nervous system via CUT homeobox genes
17:30 – 18:00
Discussion
20:00
Welcome reception
Day 2 – Wednesday May, 7
9:00 – 10:00
Keynote talk
Henrik Kaessmann
Origin and evolution of vertebrate organs
10:00 – 10:30
Coffee break
10:30 – 12:00
(4) Evolution of sensory systems
Berta Alsina
Morphogenesis of the inner ear, similarities and differences between amniotes and anamniotes
Juan Ramón Martínez-Morales
Multiome approaches to understand gene specification networks in the zebrafish retina
Eloísa Herrera
Evo-Devo Insights into the Emergence of Binocular Circuits
Maude Baldwin
Functional evolution of the taste and digestive system in birds
12:30 – 13:00
Poster Teasers
13:00 – 14:30
Lunch
14:30 – 16:30
Poster session w/ coffee
16:30 – 18:30
(5) Evolution of cell types and behaviors
Carmen Falcone
Varicose projection astrocytes: from evolution to neuroinflammation
Maria Tosches
TBA
Brad Colquitt
Enabling birdsong precision and speed through gene regulatory co-option
Auguste von Bayern
TBA
18:30 – 19:00
Discussion
Day 3 – Thursday May, 8
9:00 – 10:00
Keynote talk
Alain Chédotal
Development and evolution of the visual system
10:00 – 10:30
Coffee break
10:30 – 12:00
(6) Human-specific features of brain development
Laurent Nguyen
Cortical interneuron migration in the forebrain – an evo-devo perspective
Takashi Namba
Metabolic microenvironment for the evolution and development of human neocortex
Zoltán Molnár
Earliest thalamocortical axons modulate human cortical development via paracrine mechanisms
12:30 – 14:30
Lunch
14:30 – 16:00
(7) Organization of primate brains
Moritz Helmstaedter
Cerebral Cortex Connectomics: innovations of the primate circuit
Katja Heuer
Phylogenetic insights into the emergence of brain anatomy and cognition
Alain Goriely
The multiscale principles of neuronal path-finding
16:00 – 17:00
Keynote talk
Laura Fenlon