The 5th International Neuroscience Conference in Central China and Frontier Forum in Structure and Function of Neural Circuits was opened on October 28, 2021 in Wuhan. This international conference was hosted by the School of Basic Medicine, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Nobel Prize (Physiology or Medicine) winner Thomas C. Südhof and other world-known scholars gave academic reports online over the following four days. A number of scholars and students from China and beyond participated in this international conference, both online and offline, including academicians and recipients of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars.
Yutian Wang, an academician of the Academy of Science of the Royal Society of Canada, presided over the conference on October 29, 2021. He first gave a brief introduction of Thomas C. Südhof before the Nobel Laureate began his brilliant academic report. Thomas Christian Südhof was born in Göttingen, Germany, on Dec. 22, 1955, obtaining his M.D. and doctoral degrees from the University of Göttingen in 1982. Südhof has been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1986. In 2008, Südhof became the Avram Goldstein Professor in the School of Medicine at Stanford University. His work initially focused on the mechanism of neurotransmitter release which is the first step in synaptic transmission, and whose molecular basis was completely unknown in 1986. Later on, his work increasingly turned to the analysis of synapse formation and specification, processes that mediate the initial assembly of synapses, regulate their maintenance and elimination, and determine their properties. This elected member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences was awarded the Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine in 2013.
Südhof gave an academic report titled The molecular logic of synapse formation in health and disease: One molecule at a time. As we know, the brain processes information in millions of parallel and intersecting neural circuits that compute information by transmitting and processing synaptic signals. Neural circuit computations critically depend on the number, location and properties of their constituent synapses. Südhof hypothesizes that the construction of neural circuits by formation of defined synapses is based on an overall simple molecular logic that is determined by interactions between pre- and postsynaptic recognition and signaling molecules. He also proposes that at least a subset of autism and schizophrenia disorders are produced by specific impairments in the molecular logic of neural circuits, such that the input/output relations in affected circuits exhibit a skewed information processing capacity. In his presentation, he discussed key drivers of the molecular logic of neural circuits, such as neurexins and their multifarious ligands, and described their role in neuropsychiatric disorders to illustrate the broader concepts inherent in the hypotheses outlined above.
Man Jiang, a student of Prof. Thomas C. Südhof, now a professor at the Department of Physiology of School of Basic Medicine, worked with his previous supervisor via ZOOM throughout the report, together giving a wonderful, online academic presentation.
Südhof actively communicated with participants present via ZOOM chat box after finishing his thought-provoking speech. Südhof also answered questions raised by Academician Mingjie Zhang from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and other participants. This Nobel Laureate received a big round of applause from the audience for his inspiring speech and friendly manner.
The International Neuroscience Conference is the largest of its kind in central China. The School of Basic Medicine of Huazhong University of Science and Technology has successfully hosted four such conferences since 2012, producing much favorable comment from relevant academic circles. Going forward, the School of Basic Medicine is expected to make the International Neuroscience Conference a bigger one, as part of its efforts to further expand the influence of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in the field of neuroscience research.
