Program

DAY THREE
FRIDAY, 4 September 2026

ROOM B

08:30 – 10:30 — Symposium 13: Dysfunction of the Autonomic Nervous System in Cardiovascular Disease

Chairs: Molly O’Reilly (Academic Medical Centre, Netherlands) – Laura Fedele (King’s College London, UK)

08:30 – 08:50 Early Sympathetic Network Remodeling Precedes Structural Disease and Shapes the Arrhythmogenic Substrate in Desmoplakin Cardiomyopathy
Induja Perumal Vanaja (University of Padova, Italy)

08:50 – 09:10 Neurovascular interactions in the ageing heart
Julian Wagner (University of Frankfurt, Germany)

09:10 – 09:30 Superior Cervical Ganglion: a driver of carotid bodies hyperexcitation in hypertension
Igor Felippe (University of Auckland, New Zealand)

09:30 – 09:50 Sympatho-vagal cross talk in health and disease
Marmar Vaseghi (University of California, USA)

Selected Abstracts

09:50 – 10:05 Pathways involved in regulating the excitability of hiPSC-derived sympathetic neurons
Laura Fedele (King’s College London, UK)

10:05 – 10:20 Opposite cardiac autonomic responses to different blood components in a rat model of subarachnoid hemorrhage
Luca Alberti (University of Bologna, Italy)

10:20 – 10:30 Discussion

ROOM A

08:30 – 10:30 — Symposium 22: Interdisciplinary Studies of Nervous Systems Associated with the Gastrointestinal Tract and Beyond
Chairs: Hiromi Tamada (University of Fukui, Japan) – Shinji Tanaka (The University of Tokyo Hospital, Japan)

08:30 – 08:50 Neuronal Diversity and Connectivity in the Murine Gastrointestinal Tract
Ulrika Marklund (Karolinska Institutet Biomedicum Quarter, Sweden)

08:50 – 09:10 Advances in our understanding of sensory nerves in the gut-brain axis
Nick Spencer (Flinders University, Australia)

09:10 – 09:30 Volume-EM analysis for exploring new comprehension in gut innervation regulatory system
Hiromi Tamada (University of Fukui, Japan)

09:30 – 09:50 GLP-1 released from the gut protects the kidney through the nervous system
Shinji Tanaka (The University of Tokyo Hospital, Japan)

Selected Abstracts

09:50 – 10:05 Improved gut function and prevention of enteric neuropathy as candidate mechanisms of diet induced weight prevention with conditional knockout of neural SARM1
Lila Dabill (Washington University in St. Louis, USA)

10:05 – 10:20 Cerium mimics the torpor-like effects of lithium, altering behavior and physiology via the gut-brain axis
Oscar Vawser (Flinders University, Australia)

10:20 – 10:30 Discussion

ROOM G

08:30 – 10:30 — Symposium 15: Neuropeptides as Core Integrators of Cardiac Autonomic Function

Chairs: Julia Shanks (University of Auckland, New Zealand) – Neil Herring (University of Oxford, UK)

08:30 – 08:50 The Cardio-Protective Mechanism of CGRP
Susan Brain (King’s College London, UK)

08:50 – 09:10 Rapid Measure and Closed-Loop Control of Neurotransmitters in the Porcine Heart
Corey Smith (Case Western Reserve University, USA)

09:10 – 09:30 Glucagon-like peptide 1 as a peptide modulator of cardiac electrophysiology
Anniek Frederike Lubberding (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)

09:30 – 09:50 NPY Signalling in Human Cardiomyocytes and the Parallels in Patients Experiencing Myocardial Infarction
Neil Herring (University of Oxford, UK)

Selected Abstracts

09:50 – 10:05 A combination of GLP1 receptor agonist and P2X3 receptor antagonist ameliorate high blood pressure and high blood sugar in a novel rat model of “glucotension”
Pratik Thakkar (University of Auckland, New Zealand)

10:05 – 10:20 Oxygen not included: chemoreflex modulation by GLP-1 and α-MSH in cardiovascular disease
Audris Pauza (ISAN, University of Auckland, New Zealand)

10:20 – 10:30 Discussion

ROOM C

08:30 – 10:30 — Symposium 16: Multiple System Atrophy: From Bench to Bedside

Chair: Alessandra Fanciulli (University of Innsbruck, Austria)

08:30 – 08:50 MSA: mechanisms of disease
Antonio Heras-Garvin (Innsbruck Medical University, Austria)

08:50 – 09:10 Advances in AI-supported MSA diagnostics and biomarker research
Christopher Gibbons (Harvard Medical School, USA)

09:10 – 09:30 Cure MSA
Margherita Fabbri (University Hospital Toulouse, France)

09:30 – 09:50 Care for people living with MSA
Alessandra Fanciulli (University of Innsbruck, Austria)

Selected Abstracts

09:50 – 10:05 Cardiovascular Autonomic Failure in Multiple System Atrophy: Multimodal Characterization and Longitudinal Progression in 211 Patients from the MSA-BO Cohort
Giannicola Carrozzo (University of Bologna, Italy)

10:05 – 10:20 Pain in Multiple System Atrophy: a healthcare professionals’ survey
Nicole Campese (Ospedale Santa Chiara Trento, Italy)

10:20 – 10:30 Discussion

POSTER AREA

10:30 – 11:30 — Poster Session 3 (and refreshment)

ROOM B

11:30 – 12:30 — Keynote Lecture
Erica K. Sloan (Monash University, Australia)
Cancer neuroscience: the autonomic nervous system regulates cancer progression and treatment response

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch

ROOM A

13:30 – 15:10 — Symposium 17: Rethinking the Definition of Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems

Chair: Thiago Moreira (University of Sao Paulo, Brazil)

13:30 – 13:50 The emergence of the terms sympathetic and parasympathetic. Scientific and clinical consequences
Alexandru Barboi (Indiana University, USA)

13:50 – 14:10 The sympathetic and other related systems of nerves
Jean Francois Brunet (Paris Sciences & Lettres Research University, France)

14:10 – 14:30 Novel insights into neuro-humoral aspects involved in urinary bladder control
Monica A Sato (Centro Universitario FMABC, Brazil)

14:30 – 14:50 The autonomic nervous system: just a bunch of central pattern generators?
Vaughan Macefield (Monash University, Australia)

Selected Abstracts

14:30 – 14:45 Lineage and Organ Signals Sequentially Build Organ Intrinsic Nervous Systems
Hsu I-Uen “Yvonne” (Yale University School of Medicine, USA)

14:45 – 15:00 The interoceptive/homeostatic reset system: a neurological model for therapeutic grounding in dissociation and trauma-related dysregulation
Pascale Carrive (University of New South Wales, Australia)

15:00 – 15:10 Discussion

ROOM C

13:30 – 15:30 — Symposium 18: Transcriptomic Signatures of Autonomic Ganglia in Health and Disease

Chairs: Oluijimi Ajijola (University of California, USA) – Neil Herring (University of Oxford, UK)

13:30 – 13:50 Defining a glia-mediated barrier in the peripheral nervous system
Rejji Kuruvilla (Johns Hopkins University, USA)

13:50 – 14:10 Molecular heterogeneity and sensory coding in visceral afferent and parasympathetic pathways
Tongtong Wang (Johns Hopkins University, USA)

14:10 – 14:30 Intrinsic Cardiac Ganglia & transcriptomic signatures in human cardiovascular disease
Peter Hanna (University of California, USA)

14:30 – 14:50 Spatial transcriptomic mapping of autonomic circuits in cardiovascular pathology
Karin A. Ziegler (Technical University of Munich, Germany)

Selected Abstracts

14:50 – 15:05 P2X3 receptor expression in the human stellate ganglion
Carol Bussey (University of Auckland, New Zealand)

15:05 – 15:15 Pathogenic CHRNA3 gene variants demonstrates variable clinical expression in familial autonomic ganglionopathy
Shibao Cyndya (Vanderbilt University Medical Center, USA)

15:15 – 15:30 Discussion

ROOM G

13:30 – 15:00 — Symposium 19: Altered Regulation of Sympathetic Nerve Activity in Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction

Chair: Rohit Ramchandra (University of Auckland, New Zealand)

13:30 – 13:50 Control of muscle sympathetic nerve activity during rest and dynamic exercise in HFpEF
Mark B. Badrov (Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Canada)

13:50 – 14:10 Sex differences in sympathetic neural control in HFpEF
Qi Fu (The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, USA)

14:10 – 14:30 Control of cardiac sympathetic nerve activity in ovine hypertensive HFpEF
Joshua Chang (University of Auckland, Australia)

Selected Abstracts

14:30 – 14:45 Restoring cardiorespiratory coupling to improve exercise capacity in hypertensive HFpEF sheep
Mirdula Pachen (University of Auckland, Australia)

14:45 – 15:00 Old drug, new purpose – the effects of tadalafil on carotid body activity in heart failure
Agnieszka Swiderska (University of Manchester, UK)

ROOM B

13:30 – 15:30 — Symposium 20: Interplay of Interoception and the Autonomic Nervous System in Health and Disease

Chair: Roland Thijs (Epilepsie Instellingen Nederland (SEIN), The Netherlands & Leiden University Medical Centre, Netherlands)

13:30 – 13:50 The new science of interoception and its relationship with the autonomic nervous system
Lucia Ricciardi (George’s University of London, UK)

13:50 – 14:10 Measuring brain-heart and other organs interactions
Diego Candia-Riveira (Sorbonne Université, France)

14:10 – 14:30 Clinical implications of interoceptive-autonomic changes
Diogo Carneiro (ULS Coimbra, Portugal)

Selected Abstracts

14:30 – 14:45 A Study of Interrelationship Between Heart Rate Variability, Anthropometric Profiles, Physical Fitness, and Happiness
Om Lata Bhagat (All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India)

14:45 – 15:00 The liver modulates afferent hepatic vagal nerve activity to affect parasympathetic and sympathetic tone at skeletal muscle and glucose homeostasis
Benjamin Renquist (University of Arizona, USA)

15:00 – 15:15 Sensory circuits for the recruitment of swallow
Dempsey Bowen (Macquarie University, Australia)

15:15 – 15:30 Discussion

POSTER AREA

15:30 – 16:30 — Poster Session 4 (and refreshment)

ROOM B

16:30 – 17:30 — ISAN AGM

19:30 — Conference Dinner
Circolo della Caccia – Palazzo Spada
Via Castiglione 25 – Bologna