Chicago Chapter 2008 Annual Meeting

Our Chicago Chapter Annual Meeting was held on March 27, 2008 at DePaul University, Lincoln Park Campus Student Center.

We thank our keynote speaker Dr. Derek van der Kooy from the University of Toronto, Canada for his presentation on the “Formation and Functional Capacity of New Neural Cells in Adult CNS”.

The Presidential Symposium on Neurogenesis and Neurodegeneration was chaired by our president George deVries, with presentations from Dr. Jack Kessler, from Northwestern University on BMP Regulation of the Hippocampal Niche: How to Build a Smart and Happy Mouse”, Dr. Daniel A. Peterson from Rosalind Franklin University on “Psychosocial Modulation of Neurogenesis” and Dr. Gwendolyn Kartje, from Hines VA Hospital/ Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine on “Bone Marrow Stem Cell Therapy for Stroke”. We greatly appreciate their participation.

During the morning session two concurrent symposium were organized by Dr. Leyla deToledo-Morrell from Rush University Medical Center on “Early Markers of Alzheimer’s Disease: Clinical, Molecular and Imaging Perspectives” and by Dr. Ernesto Bongarzone from University of Illinois at Chicago on “Myelin in Health and Disease”.

We thank all the speakers of these two sessions: Dr. M-Marsel Mesulam, Northwestern University; Dr. Lester Binder, Northwestern University; Dr. Elliott Mufson, Rush University Medical Center; Dr. Leyla deToledo-Morrell, Rush University Medical Center; Dr. Anthony Reder, University of Chicago; Dr. Roumen Balabanov, Rush University Medical Center; Dr. Howard Lipton, University of Illinois at Chicago and Dr. Fozia Mir, University of Illinois at Chicago

Congratulations to the winners of the Graduate Student Competition Shilpa Ramaswamy and the runners up Cynthia Von Zee and William Chura and the winners of the Postdoc Poster Competition Dr. Irina Calin-Jageman and the runners up Dr. Hau-Jie Yau and Dr. Stephen Sammut.

At the Undergraduate level we congratulate Staci Vanderjack (University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign – Advisor: Dr. Greenough); Stephanie Valtierra (Lake Forest College – Advisor: Dr. DebBurman) and Laura Fornetti (Carthage College – Advisor: Dr. Seymoure).

Many thanks to Dr. Dorothy Kozlowski and Dr. Tess Briones for organizing these competitions.

The organization committee is very grateful for the on-site help of many students and post-docs during this meeting. Without your help the resounding success of our 2008 Annual Meeting would not have been possible!