• Home
  • Conference Program

Conference Program


Welcome! Please find the current preliminary program for AChemS 2023 listed below. Note that any aspect of this program is subject to change.

April 19 (9:00 AM - 4:00 PM): Pre-Meeting
April 19-22: AChemS Annual Meeting Program



Friday, April 19th

7:30 - 9:00 AM
CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST
Estero Foyer
8:00 - 10:00 AM
POSTER SESSION III
Estero Ballroom
9:00 - 10:00 AM
COFFEE BREAK
Estero Foyer
10:00 - 12:00 PM
CODING PRINCIPLES IN THE OLFACTORY AND GUSTATORY CORTEX
Chair/Organizer: Kevin Franks
Calusa ABC

10:00
Introduction
.

10:02
Synaptic plasticity and ensemble representation in Piriform Cortex
Anne-Marie M. Oswald. Neurobiology, Neuroscience Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

10:25
Learning embeds mixed-selectivity and associative encoding in piriform cortex
Antonia Marin-Burgin. IBioBA-CONICET-Max Planck partner Institute, Buenos Aires, Argentina

10:50
Exploring drift in gustatory cortex taste identity and valence representations
Max Fletcher, Martin A Raymond, John D Boughter. University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN

11:13
Coding in the gustatory cortex: tasting the past, the present and the future
Alfredo Fontanini. Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

11:36
Smell the Lizard: Ancestral Molecular Signatures of Olfactory Cortex Neurons
Sara Zeppilli1, Alonso Ortega Gurrola2, Pinar Demetci3, David H. Brann4, Noga Zilkha5, Tali Kimchi5, Sandeep R. Datta4, Ritambhara Singh3, Maria A. Tosches2, Anton Crombach6, Alexander Fleischmann1. 1Department of Neuroscience and Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.2Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.3Department of Computer Science, Center for Computational Molecular Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.4Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.5Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.6Inria Centre de Lyon, Villeurbanne, France

EXPLORING CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR DYNAMICS IN THE DEVELOPING OLFACTORY SYSTEM
Chair/Organizer: Paolo Forni, Ron Yu
Calusa EFGH

10:00
Exploring Cellular and Molecular Dynamics in the Developing Olfactory System
Paolo Forni1, Ron Yu2. 1University at Albany, SUNY .2Stowers Institute for Medical Research

10:02
Investigating the molecular mechanisms governing axonal projections of vomeronasal sensory neurons
Thelma T Chiremba1, Limei Ma1, Max Hill Jr.1, Hannah Wilson1, Cathy McKinney1, C. Ron Yu1, 2. 1Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, MO, USA.2University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA

10:22
Elucidation of mouse olfactory glomerular network
Pavan Rao1, I-Hao Wang1, Hao-Ching Jiang1, Sung Jin Park1, Zhiping Weng1, Fei Chen2, Evan Z. Macosko2, Paul L. Greer1. 1University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.2Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

10:42
Mechanisms Controlling Specification of Olfactory Receptor Neuron Subtypes
Kevin Monahan. Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA

11:07
Glomerular Map Formation in the Control of Social Behaviors
Sydney Fearnley1, 2, Neelima Vaddadi1, 3, Emilie Dumontier1, Jean-Francois Cloutier1, 2, 3. 1Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada.2Anatomy and Cell Biology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.3Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

11:32
Terminal Nerve Cells in Rodents as a Bridge Between Olfactory Development and Fertility
Rico Amato, Ed Zandro M Taroc, Paolo E. Forni. Biology Department -The RNA Institute, University at Albany, Albany, NY
12:00 - 1:00 PM
BUSINESS MEETING
Calusa EFGH
1:00 - 4:30 PM
FREE TIME
Lunch On Own
4:30 - 6:00 PM
DEMONSTRATIONS OF TEST PROCEDURES FOR EVALUATING HUMAN SMELL AND TASTE FUNCTION
Chair/Organizer: Thomas Hummel and Richard Doty
Great Egret

This workshop will provide participants with first-hand experience in employing a wide range of procedures for assessing human smell and taste function. A brief discussion of the strengths and limitations of each approach to testing will be provided.


THE GREAT DEBATE: THE ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN OLFACTION
Chair/Organizer: Bob Datta
Calusa ABC

Recent advances in statistical learning, machine intelligence, chemoinformatics and psychophysics appear to be bringing us closer to a holy grail of chemical biology: to be able to predict what a molecule will smell like based upon its structure alone. But, given the limits of the technologies and data, how close are we to actually reaching this elusive goal? Are these new computational approaches the key to new insights into the biology of smell, or a shiny distraction from the hard experiments necessary to understand how the brain transforms chemistry into perception? What are the right and wrong questions to ask using these methods? And given the deep role played by personal experience in smell, will it ever be possible to make accurate predictions in individuals? Here we assemble a diverse panel of experts to offer their differing perspectives on the promise and perils of AI in the study of smell. Join us as these experts engage in a vigorous open debate to render clear where these approaches stand now, and what progress we can reasonably expect in the future.

Participants:
Bob Datta (Harvard University)
Alex Wiltschko (Osmo)
Noam Sobel (Weitzmann Institute)
Stuart Firestein (Columbia University)
Ann-Sophie Barwich (Indiana University)
Pablo Meyer (IBM)
Barry Smith (University of London)
Joel Mainland (Monell Chemical Senses Center)


6:00 - 7:00 PM
DINNER ON OWN
Dinner On Own
7:00 - 9:00 PM
POLAK AWARDS LECTURES
Calusa EFGH

The Polak Foundation Awards are in honor of the Elsje Werner-Polak Memorial Fund in memory of our niece gassed by the Nazis in 1944 at age 7: Ghislaine Polak and the late Ernest Polak.


7:20
A Glomerular Hierarchy for Olfactory Discriminations
Walter G. Bast1, Cina Aghamohammadi1, 2, Priyanka Gupta1, Tatiana Engel1, 2, Florin Albeanu1. 1Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA.2Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

7:40
Utilizing olfactory receptor defined glomeruli to understand the transformation of odor representations in the mammalian olfactory bulb
Madison A. Herrboldt1, Mona A. Marie2, Hiroaki Matsunami2, 3, Matt Wachowiak1. 1Department of Neurobiology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.2Molecular Genetics and Microbiology Department, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.3Neurobiology Department, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA

8:00
Basolateral Amygdala and Gustatory Cortex Interact Bidirectionally during Taste Processing in Rodents
Abuzar Mahmood, Jessica Steindler, Donald Katz. Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA

8:20
Activation Mechanisms and Competitive Antagonism in Class I Odorant Receptors
Mona A. Marie1, Hiroaki Matsunami1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1Molecular Genetics and Microbiology Department, Duke School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.2Neurobiology Department, Duke Schoole of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.3Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Durham, NC, USA.4Duke Cancer Institute, Durham, NC, USA.5Duke Initiative for Science a Society, Durham, NC, USA

8:40
An essential role for depolarization block in odor discrimination
David Tadres1, 2, *, Philip Wong1, 3, *, Naomi Khosalim1, Mariana Lopez4, Matthieu Louis1. 1University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.2current address: Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA.3current address: University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.4Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona, Spain

220
The role of trigeminal activation in perceived odor intensity
Aiden Streleckis, Robert Pellegrino, Matthew Andres, Johannes Reisert, Joel Mainland, Federica Genovese. Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA
9:00 - 11:00 PM
POSTER SESSION IV
Estero Ballroom