Program

11th European Conference of Comparative Neurobiology

Alicante, Spain

May 6-8, 2025

Poster

Book of Abstracts

Day 1 – Tuesday May, 6

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8:30 – 9:00

Registration

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9:00– 9:30

Welcome and opening remarks

Víctor Borrell

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9:30 – 10:30

Keynote talk Chair: Víctor Borrell

Gilles Laurent

Evolutionary perspectives on circuits for vision and sleep

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10:30 – 11:00

Coffee break

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11:00 – 12:30

(1) Development of aquatic brains

Chair: Nerea Moreno-García

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

Spatio-temporal dynamics of species-specific telencephalon patterning and progenitor identities

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12:30

Group photo

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13:00– 14:30

Lunch

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14:30 – 16:00

(2) Evolution of brain development

Chair: Víctor Borrell

Tadashi Nomura

Changes in conserved developmental mechanisms underlie mammalian and non-mammalian-specific pallial structures

Fernando Garcia-Moreno

Neurogenesis and transcriptomics provide a new understanding of brain evolution

Víctor Borrell

Evolutionary convergence and divergence of cortical neurogenesis

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16:00 – 16:30

Coffee break

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16:30 – 17:30

(3) Evolution of genomic regulation

Chair: Víctor Borrell

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

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17:30 – 18:00

Discussion Chairs: Nerea Moreno-García and Víctor Borrell

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20:00

Welcome reception

Day 2 – Wednesday May, 7

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9:00 – 10:00

Keynote talk Chair: Fernando Garcia-Moreno

Henrik Kaessmann

The origins and evolution of the vertebrate brain

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10:00 – 10:30

Coffee break

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10:30 – 12:30

(4) Evolution of sensory systems

Chair: Pavel Némec

Berta Alsina

Morphogenesis of the inner ear, similarities and differences between amniotes and anamniotes

Juan Ramon 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

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12:30 – 13:00

Poster Teasers

Chair: Pavel Némec

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13:00 – 14:30

Lunch

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14:30 – 16:30

Poster session w/ coffee

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16:30 – 18:00

(5) Evolution of cell types and behaviors

Chair: Katja Heuer

Carmen Falcone

Varicose projection astrocytes: from evolution to neuroinflammation

Brad Colquitt

Enabling birdsong precision and speed through gene regulatory co-option

Auguste von Bayern

Dynamic Evolution of vocal and motor imitation in parrots

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18:00 – 18:30

Discussion Chairs: Katja Heuer and Fernando Garcia-Moreno

Day 3 – Thursday May, 8

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9:00 – 10:00

Keynote talk Chair: Nerea Moreno-García

Alain Chédotal

Development and evolution of the visual system

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10:00 – 10:30

Coffee break

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10:30 – 12:00

(6) Human-specific features of brain development

Chair: Fernando Garcia-Moreno

Laurent Nguyen

Cortical interneuron migration in the forebrain – an evo-devo perspective

Takashi Namba

Metabolic microenvironment for the evolution and development of human neocortex

Pavel Némec

The evolution of brain neuron numbers in jawed vertebrates

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13:00 – 14:30

Lunch

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14:30 – 16:00

(7) Organization of primate brains

Chair: Roberto Toro

Ornella Bertrand