Stipendberetning Mussie Ghezu Hadera

With the support from the NFS, I was able to present some of our findings in the International Brain Research Organization world congress 2019 conference held during September 21-25 in Daegu, South Korea. This international congress of all neuroscience societies organized by IBRO once every four years, aims “to promote the field of neuroscience, increase awareness about neuroscience research and facilitate collaboration between students, teachers, researchers and other stakeholders”.

In the conference, I presented a poster entitled “The effect of prenatal exposure to opioids on the cerebellum using the developing chicken embryo”. Prenatal exposure to opioids has been reported to affect brain development with long-term motor, cognitive and behavioral consequences. Animal studies, with the possibility of avoiding factors known to confound human observational studies, offer an opportunity in confirming human observations and understanding mechanisms behind observed neurodevelopmental toxicities. Our lab has been promoting the developing chicken embryo as an alternative model system for preclinical safety studies and in this poster, the specific effects of the opioids, morphine and methadone, on some markers of cerebellar development and the advantages of the model system for neurodevelopmental toxicity studies were described.

The conference was full of exciting lectures, symposia and discussions on various scientific and social aspects and it offered an exciting opportunity for networking. I am grateful for the support the NFS has provided me with, which I used to cover costs related to visa processing, transportation, hotel and accommodation.