Symposia/Workshop programme

pH dynamics in the Central Nervous System - a matter of life or death?

Synopsis

Organised by

Christof Schwiening (University of Cambridge, UK)

Location *

TBC

0845	Welcome and Introduction
0900	Mitchell Chesler (NYU Medical Center, New York, USA) Regulation and Role of Activity-Dependent pH Transients in Mouse Hippocampal Slices
0930	Roger Thomas (University of Cambridge, UK) Local pH changes resulting from calcium extrusion by the PMCA in snail neurones
1000	Robert Putnam (Wright State University, Ohio, USA) The Role of Changes of pH in Central Chemosensitive Neurons
1030	Coffee
1100	Holger Becker (Universität Kaiserslautern, Germany) A new concept of 'transport metabolon': Interactions of carbonic anhydrase with glial acid/base transporters
1130	Christof Schwiening (University of Cambridge, UK) Determinants of dendritic pH signals in neurones

Synopsis

Our drive to breathe arises not from a lack of oxygen, but from a need to get rid of carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism. Why is this so? Why should a build-up of carbon dioxide be more important than oxygen levels such that much of our breathing is regulated by it? Override this control, say by breathing in and out deeply a dozen times rapidly and you will experience the effects of lowering CO₂ in your blood. This symposium will look at the effects of breathing (or more directly CO₂) on both neuronal and glial pH as well as electrical excitability. Are changes in 'brain' pH just pathological, or do local and dynamic pH signals form a critical part of normal physiology?

Symposia Location Key

LT 1	Babbage Lecture Theatre	(New Museums Site)
LT 2	Cockcroft Lecture Theatre	(New Museums Site)
LT 3	Main Physiology Lecture Theatre	(Downing Site)
LT 4	Main Anatomy Lecture Theatre	(Downing Site)
LT 5	Biffin Lecture Theatre	(Downing Site)
LT 6	Physiology Lecture Theatre 3	(Downing Site)
LT 7	Arts School Room B	(New Museums Site)
LT 8	Arts School Room C	(New Museums Site)