This september the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre's Systems Seminars series will once again be hosting its annual Symposium, this year entitled Cross-species conversations: Integrating findings across nervous systems.

Neuroscientists today focus primarily on studying a few key species. As a result our understanding of each of these species individual nervous systems has increased considerably, but how has each of these lines of research informed the others? Rather than knowing the specifics pertaining to the nervous system of a distant evolutionary cousin, our aim as neuroscientists should be to understand general principles of nervous system function, which might apply within or across entire phyla. How can studying such a wide variety of species help us discover such principles? Should we be extending our reach into more diverse species? Or should we narrow down our approach to study a few species in depth? If so, which species should we focus on and why? What is clear is that if we are to integrate findings across species in the coming decades of research, we must aim to resolve these important questions and the methodological considerations that accompany them.

On September 21st we will welcome a panel of internationally renowned neuroscientists from leading institutes in the USA, Portugal, Germany and England. Their research focuses on both the commonly studied species, as well as some of the more unusual ones, and their teams are presently involved in cross-species projects. Our Symposium will provide the opportunity to hear engaging talks, join the discussion with our panel of researchers, and interact closely with the invited speakers and other like-minded people in our signature smaller group discussions and post-symposium BBQ and party. We hope to see you there!

We are delighted to announce the following three speakers participating in the symposium:

• Suzana Herculano-Houzel (Vanderbilt University)

• Gilles Laurent (The Max Planck Institue for Brain Research)

• Marta Moita (Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown)

Following their talks and a chance to discuss the topic with fellow audience members, our very own Chief Scientific Officer Tom Otis will lead a panel discussion as our speakers are joined by the following additional panel members from our local London neuroscience community:

• Andre Brown (Imperial College London)

• Jenny Bizley (University College London)

• Tim Behrens (University of Oxford)

Programme

14:45 - 14:55: Ticket registration

15:00 - 16:00: Talks from the three speakers

16:00 - 17:00: Short break followed by audience group discussions

17:00 - 18:00: Panel discussion

18:00 - onwards: Social with food and drinks at the SWC roof terrace

Tickets and waiting list

Make sure you arrive early for the event (before 14:45) to secure your place as we usually have a long waiting list, and will start to release any unused tickets to people on the waiting list at 14:45. In the past we have often had many ticket holders not show up on the day, so if you are on the waiting list at all we highly encourage you to come anyway, as there is a good chance you will still get a spot at the event.

If you would also like to join us and the speakers for food and drinks after the seminar make sure to grab a "Post-seminar social + food and drinks" ticket along with your "General Admission" ticket. We will also have a waiting list for these tickets, as we may be able to release more tickets on the day if the weather is good (which would allow for greater capacity on our terrace).

SWC/Gatsby Systems Seminars Team

The Systems Seminars series is organized jointly by PhD students of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour and the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit of UCL. We host an annual discussion-based event which aims to bring together neuroscience researchers from the UK and abroad to engage with current and future problems in neuroscience.