PAST COUNCILORS
Prof. Nora Abrous
Nora Abrous is a research director at INSERM and is the head of the "Neurogenesis and Physiopathology" team at the Neurocentre Magendie. She obtained her PhD on intracerebral Dopaminergic (DA) grafts in the laboratory of Pr Le Moal in Bordeaux under the supervision of Dr JP Herman. With her PhD in her pocket, Nora Abrous spent two years in Cambridge, England, in Dr. Dunnett's laboratory, working on the topic of brain plasticity and repair of lesions by embryonic neuron implants. Upon her return, she created her own team in Bordeaux and focused her work on functional recoveries, whether spontaneous or induced by DA transplants. After a series of observations revealing the deleterious effects of DA grafts, she decided to abandon this line of research with no future in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Nora Abrous began the second part of her career in the 1995's questioned by the hypothesis of the existence of nerve stem cells, which can give rise to new neurons in the adult brain. She directs her work towards a link between memory and the production of new neurons, despite the prevailing dogma that nerve cells in the adult brain do not renew themselves. This intuition proved her right, the production of new neurons is linked to cognitive aging. In addition, she analyzed the involvement of glucocorticoids and neurosteroids given their importance in the pathophysiology of aging and found that inhibition or stimulation of neurogenesis is one of the mechanisms by which glucocorticoids may fragilize and neurosteroids may protect, respectively, cognitive functions during aging. After demonstrating a causal relationship between adult hippocampal neurogenesis & relational memory and pattern separation, she revealed that adult hippocampal neurogenesis plays a pivotal role in the appearance of anxiety-like behavior and contributes to a higher vulnerability to cocaine addiction. In addition, her work focuses on shaping adult neurogenesis by deleterious (prenatal stress) and positive (learning) life events. More recently, her work focused on the role of adult neurogenesis and the different waves of developmental neurogenesis in the resilience or vulnerability to develop memory and emotional pathologies.
Dr. Youssef Anouar
Youssef Anouar is a Research Director in the French institute of Health and Biomedical Research (INSERM) and Head of the INSERM Unit 1238 at the University of Rouen. He obtained his PhD in Biology in 1991 at the University of Rennes 1 in France followed by a post-doctoral training at The NIMH-NIH in Bethesda, USA between 1992-1995. He authored more than 140 articles in peer-reviewed journals and serves as editorial board member of Antioxid Redox Signal, J Mol Neurosci, Frontiers, etc. His main scientific interest is research on peptides in brain and endocrine tissues.
Prof. Abdelhamid Benazzouz
Abdelhamid Benazzouz is a Neurophysiologist Researcher employed by the Inserm Institute working in Bordeaux University. He is expert in the field of Neuroscience and especially in Parkinson’s disease. After completing a Master degree in Morocco, he went to Bordeaux to prepare his PhD diploma in the field of Neuroscience and Pharmacology. Dr. Benazzouz was the first to develop high frequency stimulation (HFS), named also deep brain stimulation (DBS), of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) as a therapeutical approach of Parkinson’s disease. Based on the dramatic improvement of motor symptoms obtained in Monkeys rendered parkinsonians by MPTP, he proposed the transfer of this neurosurgical approach to patients. He joined as a Neurophysiologist Research Fellow the Inserm unit of Professor Alim-Louis Benabid in Grenoble to participate in transfering this approach to parkinsonian patients, with a success that has never failed since. In parallel with his hospital activity as a Neurophysiologist performing the electrophysiological mapping during surgery, he was the head of a research team in the Inserm unit investigating the functional mechanisms of this approach in animal models. In 1998 he was appointed to Inserm position as a permanent position researcher. In 2001, he came back to Bordeaux as a Principal Investigator in the CNRS unit of Professor Bernard Bioulac. In 2005 he was promoted to Research Director position. Since 2011, he is the leader of the Team "Neurochemistry, Deep Brain Stimulation & Parkinson’s disease" in the Institute of Neurodegenerative diseases in University of Bordeaux, in which he is investigating the respective role of monoamines in the pathophysiology of motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. He was elected to be member of the National Scientific committee of CNRS (2012-2021). He has published more than 130 research papers in peer-reviewed journals and 26 chapters in scientific books as well as more than 80 research contributions at international conferences, international Neuroscience Schools and Universities. Internationally ranked among distinguished scholars, his publications are cited more than 20 thousand times and received 60 degrees on the global H-Index (Google Scholar). Awards and Prizes: The France Parkinson Foundation Prize in 1992, the National Academy of Medicine award in 2003, The Academy of Science award in 2007, Rotary Foundation Paul Harris Fellow Medal and Designation from Rotary International in 2008, Medal of the city of Bordeaux in 2009. The distinction of Scientific Excellence delivered by Inserm in 2010, Honors of the Faculty of Medicine of the University Hassan 2 (Casablanca, Morocco) in 2017, Honors of the Ministry in charge of Moroccans living abroad and the Ministry of Health of Morocco in 2018.
Prof. Hagai Bergman
Hagai Bergman is the incumbent of the Simone and Bernard Guttman Chair in Brain Research and a Professor of Physiology in the Edmond and Lily Safra Center (ELSC) for Brain Research and Faculty of Medicine of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. He is adjutant professor at department of neurosurgery, Hadassah medical center, Jerusalem, Israel. He completed his MD-PhD at the Technion, Haifa at 1984, have done two post-doctorate fellowships with Moshe Abeles at the Hebrew university of Jerusalem and Mahlon DeLong at the Johns Hopkins hospital. Since 1990 he is leading the basal ganglia lab in the Hebrew university of Jerusalem and the physiological navigation in deep brain stimulation (DBS) procedures in the Hadassah medical center and other medical centers in Israel. He is investigating the computational physiology of the basal ganglia and their disorders (e.g., Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia) in non-human primates and human patients. In collaboration with Alpha-Omega, Nazareth, Israel and with other industrial companies he is developing tools for better DBS procedures and therapy.
Prof. Gustavo Deco
Gustavo Deco is an ICREA Research Professor at Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona). In 1987, he received his Ph.D. in Physics (University of Rosario) and was a post doctoral fellow at the University of Bordeaux. From 1988 to 1990, he was a postdoc at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, University of Giessen. From 1990 to 2003, he led the Computational Neuroscience Group, Neural Computing Section, Siemens Corporate Research Center. In 1997, he obtained his PhD in Computer Science, Technical University of Munich (Neural Learning). In 2001, he earned his PhD in Psychology (Visual Attention), Ludwig-Maximilian-University. From 1998 to 2001 he was Associate Professor at the Technical University of Munich. Since 1999 he has been Honorary Professor, University of Rosario; since 2001 Invited Lecturer, Ludwig-Maximilian-University of Munich; since 2016 Associate Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science; since 2017 Adjunct Professor Faculty of Medicine, Monash University; since 2019 Adjunct Professor Faculty of Medicine School of Psychological Sciences and Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University; since 2001, McDonnell-Pew Visiting Fellow, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Oxford. Research interests: Computational neuroscience, neuropsychology, psycholinguistics, biological networks, statistical formulation of neural networks, and chaos theory. Publications: 4 books, >344 papers, 35 book chapters. Patents: 52 (Europe, USA, Canada, Japan). Awards: Siemens international prize "Inventor of the Year" 2001. ERC Advanced grant 2012. Current member of the Human Brain Project (EU Flagship).
https://www.upf.edu/web/cns/gustavo
Prof. Süleyman Kaplan
Süleyman Kaplan (PhD), born in Kırşehir, is an academician in the Department of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, Ondokuz Mayis University. He completed his undergraduate studies in the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science at Ankara University. In 1984, he started to work as a research assistant in the Department of Morphology (Department of Histology and Embryology) of the Faculty of Medicine at the Ondokuz Mayis University. He received the title of Assistant Professor in 1991, the title of Associate Professor in 1993, and the title of Professor in 2000. He researched Newcastle Upon Tyne University (1992) and Oxford University (2008) in the United Kingdom. He carried out various studies together with numerous national and international researchers. Prof. Süleyman KAPLAN published more than 140 articles in international journals, and he made contributions to numerous books as the author of chapters and an editor of a book. Two thousand two hundred citations (without self-citation) from his publications have been recorded in the journals within the Science Citation Index (SCI) scope. H-index is measured to be 31. He was a member of the Council of Editors of the Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences (TÜBİTAK) and Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy (Elsevier). He had been performing the duty of editor for the Journal of Experimental and Clinical Medicine. He is the founder and president of the Turkish Society for Stereology (from 1998 to the present).
Dr. Radwa Khalil
Radwa Khalil (PhD) is a research scientist at the Department of Psychology and Methods, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany (
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2632-8306). Her current research of interest is the neurobiology of creativity (
https://www.linkedin.com/in/radwa-khalil-1b908a38/).
Recently, she obtained her PhD in neuroscience with distinction from jacobs university Bremen. Her research is interdisciplinary, spanning neuroscience, psychology, social science and history. In 2020, she received the DAAD Award from the German Academic Exchange Service for outstanding academic achievements and social and intercultural commitment (
https://nachrichten.idw-online.de/2020/10/26/akademische-exzellenz-und-soziales-engagement-an-der-jacobs-university-radwa-khalil-mit-dem-daad-preis-ausgezeichnet/). Radwa was born in Egypt, and her academic career led her to Europe in 2011, thanks to the Mediterranean Neuroscience Society (MNS). Inspired by MNS and the great middle eastern female scientists leaders who represented excellent role models in developing and serving for MNS, Radwa found it is essential to appreciate women who played vital roles in the evolution of science from the East. To contribute to a broader perception of this topic, which might even advance today's gender roles, Radwa and another researcher from Germany and Australia's Western Sydney University cooperated on a recently published book crossing various disciplines and geographical regions. This book verifies that knowing about Eastern female pioneers' historical contributions in science, politics and arts can advance today's gender roles in Middle Eastern countries and encourage young women with Eastern migration backgrounds living in Western societies. Broadening the public perception of these significant historical figures, therefore, has very high societal relevance. This knowledge offers a detailed evaluation of women's gender roles in Ancient Egypt and the Middle East, outlining their prominence and influence. It also discusses the possible psychological and social impact of this knowledge on today's gender roles.
The evaluation involves crossing disciplines such as natural sciences, neuroscience, psychology, sociology, Islamic theology, history and arts, including diverse geographical regions worldwide
(
https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811614125).
Prof. Mohamed Najimi
Mohamed Najimi was a Professor of Neuroscience at Sultan Moulay Slimane, Beni-Mellal, Morocco and head of the Biological Engineering Group in the same university. He holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the Claude Bernard University of Lyon (France) and “Doctorat d’Etat” from Cadi Ayad Univesity, Marrakesh, Morocco. His research activity focused on “the neurobiology of stress”,”neurotoxicology” and “Diabetic Brain” funded by national and international programs (Moroccan Ministry of Education: PPR-B, PICS CNRST/CNRS, Neuromed FP7…). He served as Vice-Treasurer from 2019 to 2022. Professor Mohammed Najimi passed away on the evening of Saturday, February 5, 2022, after a complicated illness lasting a few months.
Prof. Paul Pévet
Paul Pévet is a Senior scientist (Directeur de recherche at the CNRS, emeritus since 2013) and actually Professeur conventioné at the University of Strasbourg). He has studied biology at the University of Poitiers (France). In 1972, he moved into the Netherlands Central Institute for Brain Research in Amsterdam and started a work specifically on pineal endocrinology. In March 1976, he obtained a Ph.D. degree at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands). In december 1983, having been appointed at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) he returned to France where from 1984 to 2001 he conducted a research lab, "Neurobiology of rhythmic and seasonal functions" in the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg. In 2005 he founded the “Institute of cellular and integrative Neuroscience” a common Institute between the CNRS and the L. Pasteur University) and was then nominated as its first Director (2005-2010). From 1996 to 2002 he was adjunct-director of the Neuroscience department of the University L. Pasteur (Strasbourg) (IFR des Neurosciences). In 2003 till 2012, he has been nominated Director of this department. In 2003 he was also elected as chairman of the board of Neurex, a trinational federation of neuroscience departments (Universities of Basel -Switzerland- Freiburg –Germany- and Strasbourg –France-). In 2006, he founded also a «European Laboratory for Circadian Research» (LEA n° 367 CNRS-Max Planck Society) which was active till 2015. He was nominated co-director of this lab from 2006 to 2013. Since 1988, he has been actively involved in the development of cooperation and exchanges among Mediterranean neuroscientists, especially with Morocco. He was specifically involved of the creation and the working of the France-Morocco Neuroscience Consortium (GDRI, 2008-2015), and the European consortium NEUROMED (26 partners from 7 Mediterranean countries) funded within the FP7 (International Cooperation, 2009-2013). GDRI and NEUROMED played a key role in the creation of the MNS, in 2009, with the idea of sustaining exchanges and collaborations between Mediterranean neuroscientists for education and research. P. Pévet was one of the founders of the MNS, and member of the executive council from 2009 to 2012. He has also been involved in the creation of the joint Euro-Mediterranean Master's degree in Neuroscience and Biotechnology (held by Marc Landry; 13 partner institutions from around the Mediterranean) which offers teaching strictly common to the institutions that award the degree. This master was supported by local and European funding and has benefited from the Tempus program (ISIS project, 2010-2014). Others European funding’s have then followed. P. Pévet scientific interests revolved around integrative functions of the brain. Throughout his carrier, he has been seeking to understand neuronal and neuroendocrine mechanisms involved in the control of Biological rhythms with a specific interest on the hormone Melatonin. He is a founding member of the "European Pineal Study Group" now the “European Biological Rhythms Society” . From 1977 to 1990 he was the Secretary-treasurer and President from 1990 to 1996.
Dr. Azza Sellami
Azza Sellami is a postdoc at the Magendie neurocentre with Aline Marighetto’s team, in Bordeaux, France (
https://neurocentre-magendie.fr/recherche/Marighetto/descriptionTeam.php). She is working on the molecular basis of declarative memory deficits in aging using mice as a model animal. Within the laboratory, she uses different type of behavioural tests. Specifically she trains mice on different radial maze tasks to assess declarative and working memory. Furthermore, she uses different fear conditioning tests to assess normal fear and PTSD like memory. In addition, in collaboration with another team, she developed the in-vivo optogenetics technique in the lab. Therefore she has a strong background in behavioural neuroscience with an expertise in stereotaxic surgery, optogenetics, and behavioural tests.
Prof. Yasin Temel
Yasin Temel is a Professor of Neurosurgery at Maastricht University Medical Center (Maastricht, The Netherlands) and combines his clinical work with Neuroscience research. He has organized the MNS meeting of 2012 in Istanbul (Turkey).
Prof. Maria-Paz Viveros
Maria-Paz Viveros, PhD in Biological Sciences, Full Professor of Animal Physiology. Complutense University of Madrid (retired). Emeritus Member of the Spanish Society of Physiological Sciences, the Spanish Society of Neuroscience, the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) and the European Brain and Behaviour Society (EBBS). Scientific trajectory: By using animal models, we have investigated factors of vulnerability and critical developmental periods in relation to drug addiction and polydrug use and abuse, with a special interest in the perinatal and adolescent periods. The endocannabinoid system is pivotal in our research work, both as a major modulatory/regulatory system and for its involvement in addiction-related processes. We have also characterized, from a psychoneuroendocrinological perspective, an animal model of early life stress, i.e. maternal deprivation, its long-term effects, and its interactions with additional environmental insults such as drugs of abuse or psychophysiological stress. We have a special interest in sex/gender differences. In fact, we have included both sexes in most of our experimental studies. Summary of my scientific production and activities: More than 120 publications, scientific articles, reviews, and book chapters; principal investigator of several research projects; supervisor of numerous postgraduates' works, including several Doctoral Theses; invited speaker in diverse Universities, Scientific Meetings, and Workshops, including ECNP, Society for Neuroscience (SfN) and Mediterranean Neuroscience Society (MNS) among others. Reviewer for outstanding journals and member of several editorial boards. Currently available for "ad honorem" contributions as a speaker in Scientific Meetings/courses, coauthoring of collaborative scientific review articles related to my research interests, and transferring of scientific knowledge to Society through informative talks related to addiction and, especially, cannabis abuse.
Prof. Isabel Varela-Nieto
