Program

DAY TWO
THURSDAY, 3 September 2026

ROOM 1

08.30 – 10.30
Cardiovascular Autonomic Disorders in Clinical Practice
Chairs: Celine Gallagher (University of Adelaide, Australia); Helen Eftekhari (University of Warwick, UK)

Mechanistic Insights into POTS and IST: Autonomic Dysfunction, Inflammation and Hemodynamic Regulation
Artur Fedorowski

Autonomic Mechanisms in Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome: Reduced Stroke Volume, Brain Perfusion, and Postural Hyperventilation
Jacquie Baker

Cardiovascular Autonomic Abnormalities in Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19: Mechanistic Overlap with POTS and Implications for Management
Marie-Claire Seeley

Clinical presentation & diagnostic work-up of post-viral/autoimmune POTS
Fabian Leys

Fixing Perturbed Physiology: Dietary Salt and Compression to Treat Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)?
Satish Raj

Patient’s perspective: the POTS face we don’t see, patient insights on living with POTS
Jennifer Camaradou

ROOM 2

08.30 – 10.30
The Failing Dialogue: Molecular and Cellular Drivers of Cardiac Autonomic Dysfunction
Chairs: Beth Habecker (OHSU School of Medicine, Portland, USA); Hanjun Wang (University of Nebraska Medical Center, Nebraska, USA)

Precise nanomedicine targeting cardiac sympathetic afferents to treat chronic heart failure
Hanjun Wang

Non-invasively targeting cardiac sympathetic neurons with millimeter precision in patients with recurrent ventricular arrhythmias. A first in human study
Neil Herring

The role of glial cells in the cardiac autonomic nervous system: The missing link for nervous hearts?
Katarina Scherschel

Head to heart: non-invasive assessment of sympathetic tone using sympathetic vasomotion
Peter Pellegrino

ROOM 3

08.30 – 10.30
Neuroimmune interaction: how much more do we have to discover?
Chairs: Alessandra Occhinegro (The Florey Institute, Australia); Pedro Trevizan-Bau (McKnight Brain Institute, USA)

Peripheral mechanism of sympathetic anti-inflammatory action
Alessandra Occhinegro

Lung-innervating sympathetic nerves regulate airway inflammation
Pedro Trevizan-Bau

Disruption of vagal signaling impairs the central nervous system immune response to infection with murine neurotropic hepatitis virus JHM strain
Kaitlin Murray

TNF-α drives carotid body and autonomic dysfunction in dysmetabolic states: reversal through anti-inflammatory modulation
Silvia Conde

ROOM 4

08.30 – 10.30
Autonomic Dysfunction in Neurodegenerative Disorders: From Mechanisms to Therapies
Chairs: Giovanna Calandra Buonaura (University of Bologna, Italy); Walter Struhal (University Hospital Tulln, Austria)

Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration
Paolo Calabresi

Autonomic Dysfunction in Neurodegenerative Disorders
Valeria Iodice

Symptomatic and Disease-Modifying Treatments in Neurodegenerative Disorders
Alessandra Fanciulli

10.30 – 11.30 — Poster session 1 (and refreshment)

ROOM 1

11.30 – 12.30
Keynote lecture Sleep and the Autonomic Nervous System: Clinical Insights and Pathophysiology
Pietro Cortelli, University of Bologna, Italy

12.30 – 13.30 — Lunch

13.30 – 15.00 — Hot topic session
TBD

15.00 – 16.00 — Poster session 2 (and refreshment)

ROOM 1

16.00 – 18.00
Electroceuticals for controlling cardiorespiratory diseases
Chair: David J. Paterson (Oxford University, UK)

Selective stimulation of nerve fascicles within the vagus nerve
Swetlana Mastitskaya

Stellate ganglion modulation to control autonomic transmitter release
Tina Vrabec

Visceral afferent and autonomic modulation of cardiovascular function
John Osborn

Bionic pacemaking
Julian F.R. Paton

ROOM 2

16.00 – 18.00
Precisely what is torpor? Can we synthesise it?
Chairs: Ludovico Taddei (University of Bristol, UK); Carla Frare (University of Bristol, UK)

Autonomic changes during natural torpor in the mouse
Steven Swoap

Engineering hibernation: Exploring synthetic torpor induction methods and future perspectives
Timna Hitrec

Brain Circuits and Central Mechanisms Enabling Survival under Extreme Conditions
Natalia Machado

Synthetic torpor: clone or counterfeit
William Wheatley

ROOM 3

16.00 – 18.00
Cardiac innervation patterns governing cardiovascular function in health and disease
Chairs: Olujimi Ajijola (University of California, USA); Zixi Jack Cheng (University of Central Florida, USA)

Innervation of the human heart and changes associated with cardiomyopathy
Peter Hanna

Cardiac sympathetic neurons: victims and culprits in Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy (ACM)
Tania Zaglia

Cardiac vagal innervation of myocardial vasculature in the ovine heart
Julia Shanks

Heterogeneous cardiac sympathetic innervation gradients promote arrhythmogenesis in murine dilated cardiomyopathy
Olujimi Ajijola

ROOM 4

16.00 – 18.00
Autonomic Dysfunction in Multiple Sclerosis: From Mechanisms to Clinical Implications
Chairs: Claire Hentzen (Sorbonne Université, France); Mario Habek (University Hospital Center Zagreb, Croatia)

How do the autonomic and immune systems communicate in multiple sclerosis?
Mario Habek

Central autonomic network disturbance in multiple sclerosis: implications for the clinic and research
Giorgio Guido

Urogenital and gastroenterological dysfunction in multiple sclerosis: implications for the clinic and research
Claire Hentzen