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Cell Biology of the Axon - workshop report

Cell Biology of the Axon

A Cambridge Neuroscience Workshop,

Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, 20^th April 2015,

Talks from 2pm to 5.30 pm; Posters and refreshments until 7 pm

The aim of this workshop was to promote interactions, and better awareness of local activity, in the area of axon cell biology, across a spectrum of systems, problems and centres in Cambridge. The concept was developed by Cahir O’Kane (Genetics Dept), Michael Coleman (Babraham Institute) and Evan Reid (CIMR), and to meet this aim, we decided on having as many short talks as was reasonable in an afternoon, concluding with a poster session and refreshments.

Potential speakers were initially nominated by the three organisers, but had the option of nominating an alternative from their group, and were invited to nominate possible additional speakers from other groups. From this process emerged a list of 8 speakers, each allocated a 20-minute slot, from the Babraham Insitute, the LMB, Brain Repair Centre and CIMR on the Addenbrookes site, and the Departments of PDN and Genetics on Downing site. Topics covered included membrane traffic, signalling, cytoskeleton, axon transport, axon translation, and degeneration. Attendance was high – the Genetics Part II Room has 60 seats when completely full, and virtually every seat was taken. Most participants stayed for the poster session, which was very lively – I overheard a number of participants from different groups exchanging contact details to set up further interaction.

Organisational support was provided by Dervila Glynn, and in-house by Ms. Roz McKenzie from the Genetics Department – who worked together seamlessly and effectively to ensure that the event came off smoothly, despite an over-running Genetics Building refurbishment. Thanks are due to them, and also to Mr. Alex Patto (PhD student in my lab), who activated the successful Genetics “Happy Hour” infrastructure to the event.

In all, I believe this was a very successful event, judged by the demand for attendance, turnout on the day, community involvement across Cambridge, quality of the talks, and liveliness of the poster session.

Cahir O’Kane (pictured far right)

Dept of Genetics, 7 May 2015

Posted on 13/05/2015