We are pleased to announce the Cold Spring Harbor Asia conference on Optical Interrogation of Neural Structure and Dynamics Underlying Behavior will be held in Awaji, Japan, located approximately 60 km west of Osaka city.

The conference will begin in the evening of Monday April 21, 2025, and will  conclude after lunch on April 24, 2025. The conference will include eight oral sessions and one poster session covering the latest findings across many topics in Optical Interrogation. Many talks will be selected from the openly submitted abstracts on the basis of scientific merit and relevance. Posters will be up for viewing and discussion throughout the conference. Social events throughout the conference provide ample opportunity for informal interactions. 

Conference Venue & Accommodation
Cold Spring Harbor Asia conferences in JAPAN are arranged in Awaji Yumebutai International Conference Center (https://www.yumebutai.co.jp/lang/en.html), which is part of a one-of-a-kind “environment creation” project equipped with professional conference facilities and blended into the magnificent landscape, designed by the famous architect Tadao Ando. Meeting participants are strongly recommended to stay at the conference hotel, Grand Nikko Awaji (https://www.okura-nikko.com/japan/awaji/grand-nikko-awaji/) during the meeting with the rest of the participants if possible. The accommondation booking URL will be sent to you after completion of meeting registration.

Major Topics:

1. In vivo imaging of neuronal structure and function underlying behavior

2. Mapping brain circuits

3. Large scale imaging and connectomics

4. Super-resolution and correlative microscopy

5. Understanding neural modulation

6. Novel imaging modalities

7. Optical interrogation of molecular signaling

Keynote Speakers:

Haruo Kasai, University of Tokyo

Jeff Lichtman, Harvard University 

Invited Speakers: 

Guoqiang Bi, University of Science and Technology of China

Haruhiko Bito, The University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine

Tobias Bonhoeffer, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence

Yang Dan, University of California, Berkeley

Valentina Emiliani, Vision Institute

Wenbiao Gan, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School

Marina Garrett, Allen Institute

Akiko Hayashi-Takagi, RIKEN Center for Brain Science

Fritjof Helmchen, Brain Resarch Institute, University of Zurich

Mark Hübener, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence

Na Ji, University of California, Berkeley

David Kleinfeld, University of California at San Diego

Arthur Konnerth, Technical University of Munich

Yulong Li, Peking University

Hiroshi Makino, Nanyang Technological University

Masanori Matsuzaki, University of Tokyo

Elly Nedivi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Kaspar Podgorski, Allen Institute

Yang Yang, Shanghaitech University

Ryohei Yasuda, Max Planck Florida Institute

Weijian Zong, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Yi Zuo, University of California Santa Cruz

We encourage abstracts to contain new and unpublished materials. The abstracts must be submitted electronically by the abstract deadline. Selection of material for oral and poster presentation will be made by the organizers. Status (fellow's talk/poster) of abstracts will be posted on our web site as soon as decisions have been made by the organizers. 

Fellowship: 
We are eager to have as many young people as possible to attend our international meetings since they are likely to benefit most from meeting other international colleagues in the same field. A certain number of presentations by graduate students and postdocs in this conference will be selected as fellowship (USD $100-$500) awards after the meeting to off set the registration fee. Announcements of the awardees will be made during the Banquet of the meeting.

We look forward to seeing you at Awaji, Japan in April, 2025.