IBRO School of Neurobiology of Infectious Diseases: a View for Global Neuroscience, La Reunion, FRANCE: 27 November - 6 December, 2010.

Abstract

An inter-regional school was organized and supported by the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) along with 2ndconference on “Neuroinfection and worldwide impact.” The school represented the participation of Inter-Regional “Africa and Western Europe Regional Committees” with “Asian/Pacific Regional Committee” in collaboration with the University of La Reunion, St Denis, La Reunion. The school also received support from the International Association of Neuroinfection Studies (IANIS), and the Pasteur Institute, Paris and targeted inter-regional students at PhD, early postdoctoral level as well as the Junior faculty. Participating students were from Western Europe, African and Asian countries including France, United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Egypt, Kenya, Cameroon, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Madagascar, India, Singapore, and from Indian Ocean islands including Mayotte, La Reunion, Mauritius and Comoro Islands. The faculty members included: Philippe Gasque, University of La Reunion, France; Krister Kristensson Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Roberto Bruzzone, HKU-Pasteur Research Centre, Hong Kong, China; Monique Dubois-Dalcq, Insitut Pasteur, Paris, France /NIH, Bethesda, USA; Marina Bentivoglio, University of Verona, Italy; Monica Di Luca, Dept Phamacol Sciences, Milan, Italy; Valery Combes, University of Sydney, Australia; Brian Eley, University of Cape Town, South Africa; John Fazakerley, University of Edinburgh, UK; Daniel Gonzalez-Dunia, INSERM, Toulouse, France; Diane E Griffin, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Balimore, USA; Charles Newton, Kilifi, Kenya; Anura Rambukkana, University of Edinburgh; UK; Sara Salinas, CNRS, Montpellier, France; Dirk Schluter, University of Magdeburg, Germany; Allan Randrup Thomsen, Univeristy of Copenhagen, Denmark. The students had the unique opportunity to establish collaborations, learn about some of the most prevalent diseases of the nervous system, which are rarely addressed in neuroscience. The school highlighted that basic neuroscience must play a crucial role in research on the pathogenesis of these diseases that burden the tropical and developing countries and informed on new developments on emerging infectious diseases. The school included 14 lectures and group discussions of the lectures, four laboratory work sessions (RT-PCR analyses, immunofluorescence and Western blotting), in addition to training in professional skills (grant proposal writing, ethics, scientific presentations). The students showed enthusiastic participation in the school which was later segregated into four groups for discussion of the lectures, laboratory work and grant proposal writing. Moreover, all students presented posters on their research topics at the Conference that followed the school, and 10 students were selected to make oral presentations. The students also made some suggestions for future topics for IBRO, these included neuroinformatics, neuroimaging neuroethics, and good laboratory practices for resource-limited countries. The hectic scientific sessions were intermixed with three hours of escape to the beach arranged before the Conference started, while on the last day, students and teachers had a pleasurable trip to the Volcano and lava area at Grand Brule on the island of La reunion. All the participating teachers and the students were very satisfied with all the facilities and organizations provided by the University of La Reunion and were impressed by the effort, generosity and time devoted by Prof. Philippe Gasque (University of La Reunion) and his team for the successful and interactive school, and acknowledged the added value of an inter-regional meeting of this type.