Report of International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) funded 4th

IBRO/APRC Chandigarh Associate School on Translational Neuroscience,

November 10th

to 17th

, 2019 Organized by University Institute of

Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS), Panjab University, Chandigarh

The school started with its inaugural session on 10th, evening 4.00PM where in the Prof. Raj

Kumar, Vice chancellor, Panjab University Was the chief guest of the function and Prof.

Anil Kumar, Prof and Dean, UIPS and Prof. Pike -See Cheah, University Putra, Malaysia

were guests of honour. There was formal inauguration for the program by lighting the lamp,

then briefing about the importance of the school by the chief guest and guests of honour. In

the Inaugural session there was also introduction of the participants, the participants were

very diversified group from different important institutions like Jamia Hamdard, JNU, BHU,

IICB, NIMHANS etc. The inaugural function was concluded at 5.00 PM followed by High

tea.

Day-1, 11th

November

The first talk of the day was by prof. Pike-See Cheah, from faculty of Medicine and

Health Sciences, University Putra, Malaysia. Prof. Pike gave a very informative talk on

tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), how the mutations in these proteins leads to upregulated

cell growth and proliferation. She then went on to explain about the viral-based preclinical

gene model therapy of TSC1, which was AAV based viral therapy.

The second talk for the day was by Prof. Naren Ramanan, Center for Neuroscience,

Indian Institute of science, Bangalore. Prof. talk was on Neuroprotective reactive astrocytes

in Neural Injury and Neurodegenerative disorders. Sir expressed the importance of astrocytes

in the brain functions and the research that is been happening on astrocytes in the past 5 years

is actually taking the scientists into surprise. Prof. Ramanan also elaborated on how aging

process converts the astrocytes into reactive astrocytes.

The third talk for the day was by Dr. Ranjana Bhandari, Asst. Professor, Panjab

University. Dr. Ranjana s talk was on Neuropsychophrmacotherapeutic interventions for

targeting gut-brain dysbiosis in autism spectrum disorders. Dr. Ranjan explained about the

different animal models that they adopted for screening the naringenin loaded nanocarriers

for treating the gut-brain dysbiosis in ASD.

The Afternoon session was at Post Graduate Institute for Medical Education and

Research (PGIMER), Panjab University, at Experimental Pharmacology Laboratory,

which is one of the oldest Pharmacology lab and the lab also hosts the Office of Indian

Journal of Pharmacology, Dr. Bikash Mehdi, (founder of Experimental Pharmacology lab)

being the chief Editor and Dr. Ajay Parikh, the associate editor of Indian Journal of

Pharmacology. For the first one hour they gave a overview of the different kinds of

preclinical studies happening at there institute and later they took us to there labs and the

explained about the different facilities available.

Day2- 12th

November

The first talk of the day was by Prof. Laxmi T Rao, Dept. of Neurophysiology, NIMHANS,

Bangalore. The topic was The Neural Mechanisms of impaired attention processing due to

prenatal valproate exposure. Prof explained in detail about the attention which she calls as

selective prioritization of the neural representation. She also explained about the different

writing patterns which gets altered in ASD children because of which they think and behave

differently. Madam also explained about the assessment patterns in the ASD animals such as

5 choice serial reaction time.

The second talk for the day was by Dr. Rajnish Kumar, IIT, BHU. Sir has credit of

working in the MIZUGUCHI LAB, which works for the artificial intelligence. Dr. Rajnish s

talk was on Structure BasedDiscovery and Development of Novel Therapeutics for

Alzhimers Disease. Dr. Rajinish explained about the role of different proteins in taupathy and

how do they designe the SAR based targeted therapies for those proteins.

The Afternoon session on the day 2 was excursion to Kasouli, a near by hill station folloed by

visit to Gurudwar Nada Sahib, as it was 550th celebration of Guru Nanak Jayanthi and also

Guru Pornima.

Day 3-13th

November

The first talk of the day was by Dr. Mohan Kumar, Director, Inter University Centre for

Biomedical Research and Super speciality Hospital, MG University Campus, Kottayam,

Kerala. Dr. Mohan Kumar spoke about the white space analysis, to decide on where to start

ones research. Sir also explained about the evolution of PDE4 over the years to treat

parkinsons disease.

The second talk of the day was by DR. B.S S Rao, Professor of Neurophysiology,

Coordinator, Neurobiology research centre, NIMHANS, Bangalore. Sir s talk was on The

Ethics in Scientific Research and Publication.

The afternoon session was Poster presentation by all the IBRO participants.

Day 4- 14th

November

The First talk for the day was by DR. B.S S Rao, Professor of Neurophysiology,

Coordinator, Neurobiology research centre, NIMHANS, Bangalore. The talk was on

Neuroplasticity and Brain Repair Mechanisms. Sir started with his talk by quoting Brain is an

organ of mind. Prof. Rao gave a clear view on how Neuroplasticity changes on day today

activities and there by how it affects learning and memory. Sir connected the neuroplasticity

conditions in normal physiology to stresses conditions which could eventually develop into

the degenerative diseases Sir also gave a overview on how meditation improves and restores

neuroplasticity.

The second talk for the day was by Dr. Anil Kumar, Dean and professor of

Pharmacology, Panjab University. His talk was on Simple Neurobehavioral Tools,

Techniques, and Some Alternatives to animals for Neurological problems. Sir gave an

overview of the different preclinical models available for the different neurodegenerative

disorders.

The third talk for the day was by Prof. Pankaj Seth, National Brain Research Centre,

Manesar, Gurgaon. Sirs talk was on Molecular Mechanisms of Zika Virus induced

Microencephalopathy.sir explained about the development of Microencephalopathy in the

animals while it was induced by the Zeka virus transfection, at the 1st trimester on the

developmental stage. And the different anomalies that it cause in the foetus.

The afternoon session was on the Flow cytometry techniques, conducted by Dr. Archana

Bhatnagar, chairperson and Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Panjab University.

There was an interactive session on the principle, procedure involved in the flow cytometry

technique and later on demonstration of the technique.

Day5-15th

November

The first talk for the day was by Prof. Samrjith Bhattacharya, Head, Dept. of Biological

Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Mohali. The talk was

on Metabotropic Glutamate receptors (mGLURs)tTrafficking: Ins and Outs. Sir explained

about the abnormal spatiotemporal localization of the receptors in diseased conditions.

The second talk of the day was by Dr. Battuvshin Lkhagvasuren, Director, Brain Science

Institute, National University of Medical Sciences, Mangolia. Sirs talk was on Bed

Nucleus of stria terminalis involved in thermoregulatory behaviour in rats. Sir strte his talk by

giving an overview of the different central neural circuits for thermoregulation and how does

it correlates with the different neurodegenerative conditions like parkinsons disease.

The afternoon session was a visit to National Agri Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI),

Mohali. The institute primarily has three divisions on Agriculture, Food and Nutrition.there

was a visit to there central animal facility after the overview on the NABI facilities by Dr.

Mahendra Bishnoi, Scientist D, Nutritional Sciences and technology, NABI. Followed by the

visit to the central animal facility there was also demonstration of RT-PCR technique.

Day 5-16th

November

The first talk of the day was by Prof. Pike-See Cheah, from faculty of Medicine and

Health Sciences, University Putra, Malaysia. On Astrocytes-derived EV-Mediated delivery

of the antiglioma miRNA clusters in the treatment of GBM (Glioblastoma). Prof. beautifully

explained the use of extracellular vesicles to pack and target the gene or protein of interest to

target the glioblastoma cells.

The second talk of the day was by Dr. R. V Om Kumar, Molecular Neurobiology

Division, Rajiv Gandhi centre for biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram, India. Sir s talk

was on A biochemical model for learning and Memory.sir explained about the monosodium

glutamate model of memory and learning dysfunction. And how the synaptic plasticity and

Cam Kinase gets altered in this condition.

The third talk for the day was by Dr. Hiyaa Ghosh, Assist. Professor, National Centre for

Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore. Her talk was on

Making new neurons in the adult brain: Novel Potential and Regulations. Prof. went on to

explain about the different memories that are formed in the hippocampus and the potential

areas of the adult neurogenesis in brain and their observation of the transcription factor 4

requirement in the differentiation of the stem cell to the potential neurons.

The last talk for the day was by Prof. S. K Kulkarni, Emeritus professor, Panjab

university. Sir spoke on the Building an Innovation Eco-system in Pharmaceutical Sciences:

A challenging Task. Sir summarized the present research scenario in the Indian institutes and

how it is contributing to the overall growth of Indian Economy.

The session was followed by the valedictory function and certificate distribution.

Overall it was a very good learning experience, there was so much add on to the neuroscience

knowledge by each and every resource person of the program. It also gave ample

opportunities to have networking with the different neuroscientists across India and Globe.

Acknowledgement

My heartfelt thanks to:

JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research (JSSAHER), Mysuru

Dr. T. M Pramod Kumar, Principal, JSS College of Pharmacy, Mysuru

Dr. S. N Manjula, Head, Dept. Of Pharmacology, JSS College of Pharmacy, Mysuru

Dr. Saravana Babu C, Asso. Professor, Dept. Of Pharmacology, JSS College of Pharmacy,

Mysuru

University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chandigarh, Panjab University for Hosting

the event.

Last but not the least International Brain research Organization, (IBRO) and DST

Inspire fellowship training program, DST, Govt. Of India, for giving me this wonderful

opportunity to explore the present Neuroscience scenario in India and across the globe.

Yours faithfully

Mahalakshmi A.M