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Bipolar disorder: molecular and cellular biology

23—24 April 2009

Royal Holloway, University of London, UK



Organizers:
Robin Williams (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)
Talvinder Sihra (University College London, UK)

Session 1

Chair:
Anne Mudge (University College London, UK)
Thursday 23 April 2009
12:30 - 14:00 Registration

14:00 - 14:10 Welcome and introduction from the organizers

14:10 - 15:00
Recent genetic findings in bipolar disorder
Nick Craddock - Plenary Speaker (Cardiff University, UK)
15:00 - 15:30
Neural network dysfunction in bipolar disorder: clues from the efficacy of lamotrigine
Charles Large (GlaxoSmithKline, Italy)
15:30 - 16:00 Coffee/tea break

16:00 - 16:30
Risk and resilience in bipolar disorder
Sophia Frangou (Institute of psychiatry, King's College London, UK)
16:30 - 17:00
Chronic lithium treatment leads to altered gene expression in frontal cortex of rats
Seyyed Hossein Fatemi (University of Minnesota, USA)
17:00 - 17:30
Diffusion imaging study of the corpus callosum in bipolar disorder
Paolo Brambilla (University of Udine, Italy)
17:30 - 19:00 Drinks reception and poster session

19:00 - 21:00 Conference Dinner at the Picture Gallery

Session 2

Chair:
Robin Williams (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)
Friday 24 April 2009
09:00 - 09:50
Cellular consequences of inositol depletion
Miriam Greenberg - Plenary Speaker (Wayne State University, USA)
09:50 - 10:20
Is the brain arachidonic acid cascade a common target of mood stabilizers?
Richard Bazinet (University of Toronto, Canada)
10:20 - 10:40
PLA2 function in Dictyostelium: using a simple model organism to elucidate the changes in lipid metabolism upon VPA treatment
Selected oral communication - Nadine Pawolleck (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)
10:40 - 11:00 Coffee/tea break

11:00 - 11:30
PI(3,4,5)P3 as a cellular target of mood stabilizers
Adrian Harwood (Cardiff University, UK)
11:30 - 11:50
Development of the first drug-like inhibitor for inositol monophosphatase
Selected oral communication - Sridhar Vasudevan (University of Oxford, UK)
11:50 - 12:20
Valproic acid and LiCl sensitivity in prs mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Michael Schweizer (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK)
12:20 - 12:50
Post-natal triggering of bipolar episodes and implications for understanding bipolar illness
Ian Jones (Cardiff University, UK)
12:50 - 13:10
Maternal infanticide in the pig: a genetic model for puerperal psychosis?
Selected oral communication - Claire Quilter (University of Cambridge, UK)
13:10 - 14:00 Lunch and poster viewing

Session 3

Chair:
Michael Berridge (The Babraham Institute, Cambridge, UK)
Friday 24 April 2009
14:00 - 14:30
Inositol in bipolar disorder and its treatment: update 2009
Galila Agam (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel)
14:30 - 15:00
Phosphoinositide signalling as the therapeutic target of valproic acid
Robin Williams (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)
15:00 - 15:20
Investigation of the H+/myo-inositol transporter (HMIT) as a neuronal regulator of phosphoinositide signalling
Selected oral communication - Elena Di Daniel (GlaxoSmithKline, UK)
15:20 - 15:40
Identification of peripheral biomarkers associated with the inflammatory component of bipolar disorder
Selected oral communication - Marlis Herberth (University of Cambridge, UK)
15:40 - 16:10 Coffee/tea break

16:10 - 16:30
Serum BDNF levels in euthymic bipolar disorder: preliminary results from the galway bipolar study
Selected oral communication - Camilla Langan (National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland)
16:30 - 17:20
GSK3 as a direct target of lithium
Peter Klein - Plenary Speaker (University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, USA)
17:20 - 17:30
Closing remarks