GREAT LAKES GLIA 2026 SCHEDULE

CLICK HERE (coming soon) for full GLG 2026 schedule details.
CLICK HERE (coming Oct 4) for the GLG 2026 Program book.

Sunday, October 11

4:30 pm – Opening Reception (Top of the Park)
6:00 pm – Dinner (Top of the Park)
7:30 pm – Session 1:  Activation of Inflammatory Pathways in ALS  (Grandview I)
Chair: Gerardo Morfini, University of Illinois – Chicago
  • Daryl Bosco (University of Massachusetts) – Investigating the effects of ALS-linked mutations on intrinsic properties of microglia
  • Fei Song (University of Illinois – Chicago) – Therapeutic targeting of neuregulin signaling in ALS and Alzheimer’s disease: Implications for neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration
  • Allison Ebert (Medical College of Wisconsin) – Activation of inflammatory pathways in ALS
  • TBA

Monday, October 12

8:00 am – Breakfast (Top of the Park)
8:45 am – Keynote 1:  Discovery of Small Molecule Therapeutic Candidates That Target Dysregulated Neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s Diseast (Grandview I)
Speaker: Linda J. Van Eldik, University of Kentucky
9:45 am – Break
10:00 am – Poster Blitz: 2-minute Student/Postdoc presentations (Grandview I)
10:30 am – Session 2: Microglia in Neurodegenerative Disease (Grandview I)
Chair: Marcia Gordon, Michigan State University
  • David G Morgan (Michigan State University) – How amyloid immunotherapy became the first treatment to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease 
  • Catherine Kaczorowski (University of Michigan) – Detecting the effect of genetic diversity on brain composition in an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model
  • Matthew Benskey (Michigan State University) – Investigating the role of the complement system in the glial response in synucleinopathy
  • Colleen Zaccard (Northwestern University) – Inflammation-driven tunneling nanotubes in microglia-synapse crosstalk and neurodegenerative disease
  • TBA
Noon – Free Time
3:00 pm – Poster Session (Grandview II)
4:30 pm – Session 3: Novel Roles for Enteric Glia in the Gut (Grandview I)
Chair: Brian Gulbransen, Michigan State University
  • Tae-Hee Kim (University of Toronto) – Enteric glia in the intestinal stem cell niche
  • Beatriz Thomasi (Michigan State University) – Glial control of enteric central pattern generators and gut motor function 
  • Fievos Christofi (Ohio State University) – Roles of enteric glia in gut pathophysiology
  • TBA
7:00 pm – Dinner (Top of the Park)
8:30 pm – Poster Session & Refreshments (Grandview II)

Tuesday, October 13

7:30 am – Breakfast (Top of the Park)
8:15 am – Keynote 2: Wrapping the Brain: How Myelin is Generated Across Space and Time (Grandview I)
Speaker: Dwight Bergles, Johns Hopkins University
9:15 am – Break
9:30 am – Session 4: Non-Invasive Assessment of Myelin Integrity in CNS Diseases (Grandview I)
Chair: Alex Gow, Wayne State University
  • Jeff Stanley (Wayne State University) – Exploiting MR relaxation phenomena to advance the understanding of white matter microvasculature: its application to development/aging and psychiatric disorders
  • Mariana Lazar (New York University) – MRI methods for myelin and
    g-ratio mapping and their application to neuropsychiatric disorders and aging
  • Nikola Stikov (Montreal Heart Institute – NeuroPoly) – In vivo imaging of the myelin g-ratio
  • TBA
11:30 am – Lunch Break-out (Grandview I)
12:00 pm – Session 5: Astrocyte Biology Across Multiple Scales of Physiology and Pathology (Grandview I)
Chair: Maurizio De Pitta, Krembil Brain Institute
  • Alex Dranovski (Columbia University) – Astrocytes as orchestrators of hippocampal function
  • Maryam Faiz (University of Calgary) – The gut microbiota as a modulator of astrocyte state in health and disease
  • Keith Murai (McGill University) – Multi-scale analysis of astrocyte structure and architecture in CNS health and disease
  • TBA
2:00 pm – End of Meeting