2023 WNYISPW Keynote: Innovations in Neurophysiology and Approaches for the Development of Objective Inter-species Disease Neuromarkers.

Developing objective neuromarkers (endophenotypes) of disease in humans presents a unique challenge for researchers and clinicians in that, unlike most other organs in the body, we cannot readily take a biopsy of tissue or easily sample the fluids that bathe the brain. So, for example, it is only post-mortem that a definitive diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease can be made when brain tissue can be examined for the telltale neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid-beta plaques. Nonetheless, developments in neuroimaging and neurophysiological approaches are allowing neuroscientists unprecedented ability to observe both functional and structural outcomes non-invasively, and much progress has been made in
the development of objective measures for many diseases of the brain, both neurodevelopmental diseases and psychiatric conditions. In parallel, genetic engineering advances have allowed for the development of animal models of many of these human diseases, providing exquisite ability to measures disease processes in neural tissue. As extraordinary as this latter development has been, a second major challenge arises, and that is how to bridge the gap between the measures we can reasonably make noninvasively in human patients, with the detailed outcomes we are capable of in mouse models. In this presentation, I will describe some of the new technologies we have available in both the human and
animal neurophysiological toolbox, and I will describe new approaches to bridging the inter-species “translational gap” through combined electrophysiological approaches.

Bldg: RIT Student Development Center, Rochester, New York, United States, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/382036