Research

FENS 2022: strong Institut Pasteur involvement in the largest international neuroscience conference in Europe

The FENS Forum is Europe’s largest international neuroscience conference, covering all fields in modern brain research from basic to translational research. It represents a unique opportunity for neuroscientists from around the world to gather together and enjoy excellent science in one of Europe’s most vibrant cities. Founded in 1998 at the first Forum of European Neuroscience, the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) is the main organization for neuroscience in Europe. As an international organization, federating over 21,000 neuroscientists across 44 national and single-discipline societies in 33 European countries, FENS works to promote all aspects of neuroscience, through education, outreach and scientific exchange.

This year, the 13th FENS Forum of Neuroscience (FENS Forum 2022) took place in Paris on July 9-13, 2022 and brought together more than 7,800 attendees from 92 countries. Several Institut Pasteur teams working in the field of neuroscience were closely involved in this major international neuroscience event in Europe.

A host committee formed by Parisian researchers was in charge of organizing the opening ceremony and other ceremonies and activities throughout the year to publicize the event among scientists and the general public. The host committee members included David DiGregorio (Director of the Neuroscience Department and Head of the Synapse and Circuit Dynamics Unit) and Brice Bathellier (Head of the Auditory System Dynamics and Multisensory Processing team at the Hearing Institute). The organization of this opening ceremony benefited from the financial support of priority area 3 (Brain connectivity and neurodegenerative diseases).

Several Institut Pasteur teams also participated in two main activities organized by the FENS Host Society Committee and the French Neuroscience Society (Société des Neurosciences):
 

  • "Neurotour de France", a series of videos introducing key local neuroscience institutes. In total 15 episodes including the one on the Institut Pasteur Neuroscience Department (episode 6, video directed by François Gardy) and the Hearing Institute (episode 11).

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  • Conference open to the public in the context of FENS 2022: "Cerveaux et Intelligence Artificielle." This event was organized by the Director of the Neuroscience Department David DiGregorio, Jean-Baptiste Masson, Head of the five-year group Decision and Bayesian Computation, and Christophe Zimmer, Director of the Department of Computational Biology, and financially supported by Priority area 3 and ATC-IA.


The Neuroscience Department’s scientists also contributed to the Scientific program of the FENS Forum by organizing symposiums:

  • “Go with the flow! Choroid plexus mechanisms shape brain function in health and disease” held on Sunday morning, July 10 and organized by Aleksandra Deczkowska, head of the G5 Brain-immune communication.

  • “Understanding the formation of spatial representations: from synapses to circuits” held on Monday afternoon, July 11 and organized by Christoph Schmidt-Hieber, head of the G5 Neural circuits for spatial navigation and memory.

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Alongside the conference, several "satellite events" for FENS 2022 also took place on the Institut Pasteur campus and at the Hearing Institute:

The strong involvement of Institut Pasteur teams working in the field of neuroscience reflects the decision taken by the Institut Pasteur in 2019 to make neuroscience a major strategic priority and to contribute to knowledge transfer, raise awareness and encourage discussions on the topic with the aim of advancing research.

 

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