2024 Anne & Max Tanenbaum Symposium: Precision Medicine for Epilepsy and Related Neurodevelopmental and Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Join us for this year's Anne & Max Tanenbaum Symposium on October 10, 2024 at the BMO Centre, Krembil Research Tower, 60 Leonard Ave, Toronto. This year's topic is, "Precision Medicine for Epilepsy and Related Neurodevelopmental and Neuropsychiatric Disorders."

Hosted by Dr. Peter Carlen, Tanenbaum Chair in Neuroscience, the event will feature a series of talks from world-leading researchers followed by Q&A sessions. 

Registration is FREE but required by October 7, 2024. 

Register today!

Details

October 10, 2024
8:30 am - 5:00 pm
BMO Centre, Krembil Research Tower
60 Leonard Avenue, Toronto

Access thFINAL REVISED 4 Tanenbaum Symposium 2024.pdfe program as a pdf.

Introduction

The future of medicine is dynamic and presently in great flux, with recent major impacts of population-based, disease specific genetic databases, metabolomics, proteinomics, gene therapy, human based stem cells and organoids, all potentially curated and tied together with artificial intelligence (AI). Here we plan to examine the intersection and overlap of epilepsy, neurodevelopmental/neuropsychiatric disorders, often inter-related by mitochondrial dysfunction, an understudied aspect of the neurobiology of disease.

We present a novel interdisciplinary approach to diagnosing and treating these disorders looking at their overlapping pathogenesis and genetic backgrounds, with a view to translating from the bench to the patient, from the patients (especially genetic databases) to the bench, and with the help of industry back to treating the patient. Precision medicine is the way of using multiple streams of relevant data to treat that specific patient, instead of treating the broader disease category into which the patient has been classified. This entails the application of a population-based disease specific database coupled with that patient’s specific genome and analyses of that patient’s specific biomarkers including data from their own derived genetically-true derived brain tissue (e.g. brain organoids) coupled together with AI to decide on that specific patient’s optimal therapy.

This symposium will include research experts in epilepsy genetics, neurodevelopmental epileptic disorders, neuropsychiatric disorders, mitochondrial disorders, human-based 2D and 3D brain cultures, gene therapy, artificial intelligence and the roles of industry in using these novel insights and diagnostic approaches for drug development/drug trials, and leveraging industry to impact treatments, particularly in the underserviced world. 

Program

8:30am – Registration

8:45-9:00am – Welcome
Dr. Peter Carlen
Dr. Jaideep Bains

9:00-10:30am – Genetics in Epilepsy: Optimizing Diagnoses and Treatment

Chair: Dr. Danielle Andrade

Dr. Danielle Andrade 
Genetic Epilepsies: From Neurodevelopmental to Neurodegenerative Disorders

Dr. James Eubanks
Precision Medicine: How a Patient-Specific Mouse Model Facilitated the Identification of a Prospective treatment for CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder

Dr. Anne Bassett
Disease Mechanisms and Treatment in a Human Genetic Model of Schizophrenia

Q&A

10:30-10:45am – Break

10:45am-12:15pm – New technologies for Precision Medicine in Brain Disorders

Chair: Dr. Peter Carlen

Dr. Peter Carlen
Using 2D and 3D (Organoid) Cerebral Cultures to Diagnose and Treat Developmental Epileptic Encephalopathies

Dr. Liliana Attisano
Developing Complex Human Brain Organoid Models

Dr. Amy Ramsey
AAV-Mediated Gene Therapy for GRIN Neurodevelopmental Disorder

Q&A

Mitochondria: Understudied Key Factor in Diagnosing and Treating Epilepsy

Chair: Dr. Ana Andreazza

Dr. Shebani Sethi
Keynote Speaker
Metabolic Psychiatry: Ketogenic therapy in Schizophrenia and Bipolar - Results from a Pilot Clinical Trial

Dr. Ana Andreazza and Jaehyoung Choi
Brain, Mitochondria & Metabolism: Transdiagnostic Dimensions, and Using AI to Assess Mitogene Risk in Bipolar and Other Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Q&A

12:15-1:45pm - Lunch Break and Posters from Labs and Interested Companies

1:45-3:15pm – Mitochondria: Understudied Key Factor in Diagnosing and Treating Epilepsy

Chair: Dr. Ana Andreazza

Dr. Shebani Sethi
Keynote Speaker
Metabolic Psychiatry: Ketogenic therapy in Schizophrenia and Bipolar - Results from a Pilot Clinical Trial

Dr. Ana Andreazza and Jaehyoung Choi
Brain, Mitochondria & Metabolism: Transdiagnostic Dimensions, and Using AI to Assess Mitogene Risk in Bipolar and Other Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Q&A

3:15-3:30pm – Break

3:30-4:45pm – Precision Medicine and Industry

Chair: Dr. Miron Derchansky

Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky
The Use of Multi-Ingredient Supplements to Target Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Neurological Disorders

Dr. Miron Derchansky
De-Risking Clinical Trials with Precision Medicine and Digital Biomarkers

Dr. Amza Ali
Precision and Imprecision Medicine: Outreach to the Developing World

Q&A

4:45-5:00pm – Closing Remarks

Speakers

Peter Carlen, MD, FRCPC
Senior Scientist, Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network
Professor, Departments of Medicine and Physiology, and Institutes of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Science, University of Toronto

Danielle Andrade, MD, MSc, FRCPC, CSCN (EEG)
Professor of Medicine (Neurology), University of Toronto
Director Adult Genetic Epilepsy Program, University Health Network
Medical Director Epilepsy Program, University Health Network
President-Elect Canadian League Against Epilepsy

James Eubanks, PhD
Senior Scientist and Head, Division of Experimental and Translational Neuroscience, Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network
Professor, Departments of Surgery, Physiology, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Toronto

Anne Bassett, CM, MD, FRCPC
Dalglish Chair in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
Associate Staff, Division of Cardiology, University Health Network
Director, The Dalglish Family 22q Clinic for Adults, Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network
Director, Clinical Genetics Research Program, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Jaehyoung Choi
PhD Candidate, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto

Mark Tarnopolsky, MD, PhD, FRCP(C)
McMaster Children's Hospital / Hamilton Health Sciences Foundation Chair in Neuromuscular Disorders
Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine and Division Head of Neuromuscular and Neurometabolic Disorders, Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University
CEO and CSO, Exerkine Corporation
Neuromuscular, Neurogenetic and Neurometabolic Physician, McMaster University Children’s Hospital

Ana Andreazza, PhD
Canada Research Chair in Molecular Pharmacology of Mood Disorders
Thomas C. Zachos Chair in Mitochondrial Research
Professor, Departments of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Psychiatry, University of Toronto
Scientific Director, Mitochondrial Innovation Initiative 

Shebani Sethi, MD, ABOM
Clinical Associate Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University
Founding Director, Metabolic Psychiatry Clinic, Stanford University School of Medicine

Miron Derchansky PhD, MBA
Managing Director, Blackletter Consulting Group

Liliana Attisano, PhD
Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto

Amy Ramsey, PhD
Associate Professor, Departments of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Physiology, University of Toronto

Amza Ali MD, MSc, FRCP, FAAN, FAES, MBA
Head, Department of Neurology, Kingston Public Hospital
Senior Associate Professor of Medicine and Neurology, University of the West Indies
Neurologist and Epileptologist