Ipsen: Second Symposium on Biological Complexity: ´Genes, Circuits and Behavior´ Jointly Organized by the Salk Institute, Nature and La Fondation Ipsen

The second annual symposium of the series "Biological complexity"
will highlight recent advances in interdisciplinary neuroscience,
toward the understanding of the influence of gene regulation in
circuit function and behavior in health and diseases (e.g., Rett
syndrome, autism, addiction, memory disorders). The main topics of the
symposium intend to define the mechanisms that provide genes with the
ability to regulate the development and function of neural circuits
and how these circuits then control behavior. The symposium is held
from 10 to 13 January 2008 in the Salk Institute.

The aim of this meeting is to seek answers to some of the most
provokating questions regarding the molecular mechanisms that govern
behavior, the impact of genetics on behavior, the role of epigenetic
factors, the understanding of psychiatric disorders...

Making integrative connections across the different levels of
perception and function is one of the foremost challenges in
understanding the brain. Recently, neuroscientists have begun to make
substantial progress on these difficult questions, such as determining
how chromatin regulation contributes to depression, or how genetic
variation between individuals influences susceptibility to psychiatric
disorders.

The meeting will cover 5 fields: motor systems, sensory systems,
affective behaviors, human disease, and memory. Each session is
chaired by a renowned scientist. Three laureates of the Nobel Prize
Several will give lectures: Richard Axel (Columbia University), Eric
Kandel (Columbia University) and Susumo Tonegawa (MIT) will present at
the symposium Ten of the speakers are members of the National Academy
of Sciences, USA, in particular Jean-Pierre Changeux, Professor at the
College de France and at the Institut Pasteur (France).

Last year, the theme of the symposium was transcription factors
that control gene expression and to that extent, are critical and
complex but their understanding could lead to the discovery of drugs
using therapeutic and medical research.

La Fondation Ipsen

Established in 1983 under the aegis of the Fondation de France,
the mission of La Fondation Ipsen is to contribute to the development
and dissemination of scientific knowledge. The long-standing action of
La Fondation Ipsen is aimed at furthering the interaction between
researchers and clinical practitioners, which is indispensable due to
the extreme specialisation of these professions. The ambition of La
Fondation Ipsen is not to offer definitive knowledge, but to initiate
a reflection about the major scientific issues of the forthcoming
years. It has developed an important international network of
scientific experts who meet regularly at meetings known as Colloques
Medecine et Recherche, dedicated to six main themes: Alzheimer´s
disease, neurosciences, longevity, endocrinology, the vascular tree
and cancer. In 2007, La Fondation Ipsen started three new series of
meetings in partnership with: on the one hand the Salk Institute and
Nature magazine focused on Biological Complexity, on the second hand
with Nature magazine on Emergence and Convergence, the last series
being with Cell magazine and the Massachusetts General Hospital titled
Exciting Biologies. Since its beginning, La Fondation Ipsen has
organised more than 90 international conferences, published 65 volumes
with renowned publishers and 193 issues of Alzheimer Actualites. It
has also awarded dozens of prizes and grants.