Prions 2019 - 8th Iberian Congress on Prions

WELCOME

The “Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco (IPCB)”, “Universidade de Trás-os Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD)” and “Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária (INIAV)” are very pleased to invite you to the 8^th Iberian Congress on Prions, to be held in Castelo Branco, Portugal, on the 24^th and 25^th of October 2019.

The invited speakers are renowned researchers in the areas of Prion Structure and Biology, Prion Diseases in animals and Prion and Prion-like diseases in Humans which are the main subjects of discussion of the congress.

INVITED SPEAKERS

Prion Structure and Biology

Markus Glatzel

Director of the Institute of Neuropathology, University Medical Center Hamburg - Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

Prion Structure and Biology

Maria João Saraiva

Principal Researcher of Molecular Neurobiology group - Instituição de investigação e inovação em saúde i3S and IBMC - University of Porto, Portugal

Prion Diseases in animals

Sylvie Benestad

Head of the National Reference Laboratory for TSE in animals - Norwegian Veterinary Institute, Oslo, Norway and Head of the OIE reference laboratory for CWD, Norwegian Veterinary Institute Oslo

Prion and Prion-like diseases in humans

Elvan Boke

Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) - Cell and development Biology - Leader of the Oocyte Biology and Cellular Dormancy group, Barcelona, Spain

PROGRAM

Thursday, 24th October
Friday, 25th October

Thursday, 24^th October

MORNING

08:30 - 10:00	Registration
09:30	Welcome
PRION STRUCTURE AND BIOLOGY
10:00 - 11:00	Chair: Jesus Requena Invited Speaker: Professor Markus Glatzel "The role of proteolytic processing of the prion protein in neurodegenerative diseases”
11:00 - 11:30	Coffee Break and Poster Discussion
11:30 - 13:00	Chairs: Salvador Ventura and Jesus Requena
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS: 1. Giovanni Spagnolli (CIBIO-University of Trento) “Unraveling Common Molecular Mechanisms of Prion Propagation” 2. Yaiza B. Codeseira (CiMUS-University of Santiago de Compostela) “A Structural Insight of Infectious Recombinant PrP^Sc Using FTIR” 3. Hasier Eraña (CIC bioGune, ATLAS Molecular Pharma) “A largely scalable new method to produce infectious recombinant prions” 4. Susana Navarro (IBB, UAB) “A first bacterial extracellular and functional prion-like protein” 5. Yanick Bichot (Bio-Rad) “A complete and consistent solution for TSE diagnosis”
13:00 - 14:30	Lunch

AFTERNOON

14:30 - 15:30	Chairs: Jesus Requena Invited Speaker: Professor Maria João Saraiva - “Animal models of transthyretin amyloidosis to search for FAP patient´s biomarkers”
PRION DISEASES IN ANIMALS
15:30 - 16:30	Chair: Enric Vidal and Hasier Eraña
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS: 6. Alba Marín-Moreno (CISA-INIA) “Broad study of the diversity of classical scrapie prions circulating in Europe by using just two rodent models” 7. Tomás Barrio (Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, University of Zaragoza) “Mixtures of prion substrains in field cases of scrapie revealed by mice bioassay” 8. Marina Betancor (Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, University of Zaragoza) “Therapeutic assay with the non-toxic C-terminal fragment of tetanus toxin (TTC) in transgenic murine models of scrapie”
16:30 - 17:00	Coffee Break and Poster Discussion
17:00 - 18:00	Chair: Tomas Mayoral and Juan Badiola
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS: 9. Diego Sola (Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, University of Zaragoza) “Infectivity study: inoculation of tg340 mice with tissues from resistant goats inoculated with bovine and caprine bovine spongiform encephalopathy” 10. Mafalda Casanova (University of Evora, INIAV) “Characterization of the first Portuguese cases of Atypical Scrapie in transgenic ovine ARQ-PrP mice” 11. A. Hernaiz (LAGENGIO, University of Zaragoza) “Whole genome DNA methylation profiles in the central nervous system of sheep naturally infected with scrapie”
18:00	Musical moment by *Castra Leuca Trio*

Friday, 25^th October

MORNING

PRION DISEASES IN ANIMALS (continuation)
09:00 - 10:00	Chair: Leonor Orge Invited Speaker: Doctor Sylvie Benestad “CWD Norwegian experience, diagnosis and control, risk analysis and characteristics of the Norwegian CWD cases”
10:00 - 11:00	Chairs: Rosa Bolea and M. Lurdes Pinto
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS: 12. Raymond Bujdoso (Cambridge University) *“Susceptibility of human PrP Drosophila* to cervid prions” 13. Christopher J. Silva (USDA) “Quantitating prion polymorphisms from heterozygous CWD-infected white-tailed deer” 14. Alicia Otero (University of Alberta) “Elk-PrP^C expression levels do not alter the Wisc-1 CWD strain properties and favors its selection from mixtures”**
11:00 - 11:30	Coffee Break and Poster Discussion
11:30 - 12:00
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS: 15. Amy L. Robinson (Roslin Institute) *“Regional variation in the prion protein gene (PRNP)* in wild European deer species” 16. Jorge C. Pereira (CITAB, CECAV, UTAD) “Chronic wasting disease risk assessment in Portugal - Genetic variability preliminary results and future perspectives”**
PRION DISEASES AND PRION-LIKE DISEASES IN HUMANS
12:00 - 13:00	Chair: Joaquin Castilla Invited Speaker: Doctor Elvan Boke “The Balbiani Body: A super-organelle held together by amyloid-like assembly”
13:00 - 14:30	Lunch

AFTERNOON

14:30 - 16:30	Chairs: Juan Maria Torres and J. Castilla 9^th Iberian Congress on Prions 2020
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS: 17. Benoit Schneider (Université Paris Descartes, Inserm) “Three pathological consequences of TACE α-secretase deregulation in prion diseases” 18. Franc Llorens (CIBERNED, IDIBELL, University Medical School, Goettingen) “Plasma total prion protein as a potential biomarker for neurodegenerative dementia: diagnostic accuracy in the spectrum of prion diseases” 19. Charlotte M. Thomas (Roslin Institute) “Optimising RT-QuIC for the detection of prion seeding activity in BSE-infected ovine blood” 20. Juan Carlos Espinosa (CISA-INIA) “Amino acid residues in β2–α2 loop of human-PrP regulate prion strain susceptibility”
16:30 - 17:00	Coffee Break and Poster Discussion
17:00 - 18:00	Chair: Franc Llorens
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS: 21. O. Andreoletti (UMR INRA ENVT) “sCJD agents distribution in peripheral tissues” 22. Abigail B. Diack (Roslin Institute) “vCJD strain is consistent in individuals of two PRNP codon 129 genotypes””
20:00	Congress Dinner