Program

Thursday, June 26th 2025:

• 9am-5pm: Arrival and registration
• 2pm-5pm: Business Meeting (Location TBD)
• 5pm-8pm: Welcome Reception (Location TBD)

Friday, June 27th 2025:

VA Puget Sound Healthcare System, 1660 S. Columbian Way, Seattle WA 98108

***All talks include speaker set-up and 5 min Q and A, please send your slides as a power point presentation to seattlebbbsymposium@gmail.com (preferred method) or bring a flash drive with your slides to the conference.

7:30-8:00: Coffee and pastries, speaker set-up

8:00-8:15: Bill Banks, welcome and intro to BBB

Session 1:
In vitro models of brain barriers, and their novel applications (Shelly Erickson, Moderator)

8:15-8:45: Maria Deli (HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, Szeged, Hungary) “Characterization and biomedical application of a lab-on-a-chip blood-brain barrier model integrated with brain organoids”

8:45-9:05: Kira Evitts (University of Washington, Seattle, USA) “TBA”

9:05-9:30: Hideaki Nishihara (Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Yamaguchi, Japan) “hiPSC-Based Blood-Brain Barrier Models Elucidate Distinct Pathomechanisms in NOTCH3, HTRA1, and COL4A1-Related Small Vessel Diseases”

9:30-9:55: Yosuke Hashimoto (Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland and Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima. Japan) “Identification of novel negative regulators of claudin-5 in vascular endothelial cells by genome-wide screening”

Break

Session 2:
Neurovascular and peripheral vascular dysfunction following brain injury (Elizabeth Rhea, Moderator)

10:15-10:45: Akihiko Urayama (Department of Neurology, University of Texas Health Science Center. McGovern Medical School. Houston, Texas, USA) “Mechanosensitive Signals Regulate Blood-brain Barrier Integrity in Alzheimer’s Disease”

10:45-11:10: Aric Logsdon (Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, School of Medicine, Lubbock, TX, USA) “Harnessing mass spectrometry approaches to quantify glycan composition at the blood-brain barrier”

11:10-11:30: Masaki Kumagai (Department of Neurosurgery, Takayama Red Cross Hospital and Department of Biofunctional Evaluation, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, Gifu, Japan) “Microthrombosis at the ultra-early stages after experimental subarachnoid hemorrhage results in the early brain injury”

11:30-11:55 Yoichi Morofuji (Department of Neurosurgery, Showa Medical University School of Medicine, Tokyo and Department of Neurosurgery, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki, Japan) “Pharmacologic Protection of the Blood–Brain Barrier by Fasudil Under Ischemic Conditions: Preclinical Implications for Endovascular Stroke Therapy”

11:55-12:15: Nozomi Sasaki (Department of Neurosurgery, Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, and Molecular pharmacology, Department of Biofunctional Evaluation, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, Gifu, Japan) “Impairment of the pulmonary endothelial glycocalyx: An essential mechanism of neurogenic pulmonary edema following experimental subarachnoid hemorrhage”

Lunch

Session 3:
Blood-brain barrier transport and regulation of the neurovascular unit (Yoichi Morofuji, Moderator)

1:30-2:00: Shinya Dohgu (Department of Pharmaceutical Care and Health Sciences, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, Japan) “Monomeric α-synuclein crosses the blood-brain barrier through Toll-like receptor 4 and a mannan-sensitive saturable transport system”

2:00-2:25: Elizabeth Rhea (Department of Medicine-Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, USA) “Considering the blood-brain barrier with incretin receptor agonists”

2:25-2:45: Karoline Pichlerova (Institute of Neuroimmunology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia) “Identification of Antibodies Suitable for a Receptor Mediated Delivery System for the Brain”

2:35-3:00: Shelly Erickson (Department of Medicine-Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, USA) “Regulation of CXCL4 transport across the BBB”

3:00–3:20: Miki Yokoya (Lab. Clinical and Analytical Sci., Fac. Pharmaceut. Sci, Fukuoka Univ., Fukuoka, Japan) “Exendin-4 promotes α-Synuclein degradation via Akt, ERK, and p38 MAPK signaling pathways in brain pericytes”

3:20-3:45: Fuyuko Takata (Department of Pharmaceutical Care & Health Sciences, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Fukuoka University) “Impact of dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis on brain pericytes in mice”

3:45-4:00pm: Student talk (TBA)

4:00-4:05pm: Bill Banks- closing of session and announcements

Posters: 4:05-5:30pm