Karen Doyle is Associate Professor in Physiology and Principal Investigator. Her research involves studying the causes of neurovascular stress and investigating novel strategies to protect brain tissue from damage due to stroke. Dr Doyle’s group is investigating the characteristics of human blood clots that cause occlusive strokes to inform medical device design and the discovery of novel biomarkers to advance stroke diagnosis and treatment. Dr Doyle is also investigating the pathophysiology of stroke in the brain and the effect of reperfusion strategy on the survival of brain tissue.

Dr Michaela Fencková was introduced to neurobiology during her postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Annette Schenck, at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands. She was hired on FP7-EU funded consortium GENCODYS to study genetic causes of neurodevelopmental disorders. When she learned that she can do it with Drosophila, the model with which she did her first experiments as an undergraduate, she found it a perfect match. She discovered that flies with genetic mutations equivalent to those found in individuals with intellectual disability (ID) frequently manifest with deficits in habituation, a conserved, fundamental form of learning that is at the base of high cognitive functions. When she focused on genes that were next to ID also associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the frequency of habituation deficits was even higher – every second gene turned out to be important for habituation. Because habituation can be assessed in both flies and humans, and several studies showed defective habituation in ID and ASD individuals, she realized that it can be used as a translational readout. With this idea, Michaela has established a research laboratory at the University of South Bohemia where she studies the neuronal mechanisms of habituation to understand cognitive dysfunction in ID/ASD and identify treatment targets. She also investigates novel genetic causes of ID/ASD that include patient-specific missense variants and the effect of environmental factors on cognitive dysfunction in ID/ASD. In 2023, she received an EMBO Installation Grant and a national L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award.

Ana João Rodrigues is a Group leader at ICVS, and an invited Professor at the School of Medicine of University of Minho. Her team has been allying fundamental with clinical research, combining rodent and human data, using a variety of techniques to find mechanistic explanations on how reward and aversion are encoded in the mammalian brain. Additionally, her work explores how stress during critical developmental periods can leave long-lasting imprints on these neural processes, potentially resulting in maladaptive behaviours such as depression and addiction. Ana is actively involved in teaching, contributing to national and international graduate programs, including the prestigious Cajal Training Programme. She is also committed to science outreach, having coordinated numerous initiatives aimed at promoting science dissemination and health literacy among the general public for several years.

Domna Karagogeos is a Professor of Molecular Biology-Developmental Neurobiology at the University of Crete Medical School (GR) and group leader at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB). She holds a PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University. Before establishing her own group in Crete, she has done postdoctoral research on axon guidance in the Center of Neurobiology and Behavior and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University (US). Her research involves the elucidation of cellular and molecular
signals involved in neuronal migrations, especially in cortical interneurons and the interactions between axons and myelin, especially as it pertains to de- and remyelination and the role of glial cells. She uses mouse genetics, advanced imaging, primary cultures and functional assays. She has been involved in teaching developmental neurobiology in many national and international graduate programs. She has been a CHET member and past CHET chair and has participated in establishing training best practices for Neuroscience students in Europe.

Ana-Maria Zagrean MD, PhD is a Professor in Physiology and Neuroscience at Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest. She graduated from medical school (1995) and got a PhD in Medical Sciences, Neurology (2003). She had a doctoral fellowship at Clinical Neuroscience Department, Karolinska Institute (2000–2001), and she was a Junior Fellow of The Physiological Society, UK (2005-2007), and Honorary Research Fellow (2006-2008) at Medical Sciences Division, Birmingham University. She investigates the mechanisms regulating the brain responses to hypoxia/ischemia and altered states of excitability in the immature/mature brain, in vivo (cerebral ischemia, perinatal asphyxia, experimental epilepsy) and in vitro (oxygen-glucose deprivation), using genetic/epigenetic, biochemical, electrophysiological and behavioral approaches, and, more recently, the effects of metabolic and environmental stressors on neurodevelopment and brain recovery. As a founding member and secretary of the National Neuroscience Society of Romania (SNN) since 2001, Ana-Maria Zagrean was engaged in all scientific and outreach events of this society. In 2012 she contributed to the FENS History Project “Historiography of Neurosciences in Eastern Europe, Romania, 1870-1970”. As a recognition of her neuroscience advocacy activity, she was invited to serve as an EDAB Term member since 2006. From 2017, Ana-Maria Zagrean serves as an IBRO-PERC member.