Final Programme
Monday, 30 March 2026 – Sleep and Cerebrovascular Interactions
08:00-08:20 Badge Pickup/Coffee
08:20 – 08:30 – Welcome and Introduction – Mootaz Salman
08:30 – 09:30 Keynote Talk – Maiken Nedergaard
Sleep, Brain Fluid Dynamics, and the Glymphatic System
Moderator: Jeffrey Iliff
09:30 – 10:45 – Session 1. Brain Clearance: Sleep-Related Physiology
Lauren Hablitz – Chronotherapy for glymphatic and stroke recovery
Hiroki Ueda – A whole-brain single-cell atlas of circadian neural activity in mice
Sara Marie Ulv Larsen – Plasma norepinephrine and sleep deprivation exert distinct effects on cerebral vasomotion
Erik Kroesbergen – Wakefulness suppresses brain clearance
Panel Q/A
Moderator: Laura Lewis
10:45-11:15 – Break
11:15-12:35 Session 2A. Brain Clearance: Cerebrovascular Interactions
Britta Engelhardt – Brain Barriers as Gatekeepers of Neuroimmune Communication
Susanne van Veluw – The role of vasomotion in brain clearance
Juan Varela – Nanoscale imaging of CSF circulation in the brain parenchyma
Beth Eyre – The effect of different visual stimulation frequencies on arteriolar oscillations: implications for driving perivascular clearance?
Panel Q/A
Moderator: Helene Benveniste
12:35-13:45 – Lunch (Meet the Editor Session 1)
13:45 – 14:55 Session 2B. Brain Clearance: Cerebrovascular Interactions
Helene Benveniste – Brain drainage in chronic hypertension
Ross Nortley – Neurodegeneration-inducing macromolecules exit the brain via conduits formed by reticulated fibroblasts
Lucas Unger – Validated AQP4 modulators are essential for investigating brain fluid flow
Panel Q/A
Moderator: Susanne van Veluw
14:55-16:15 Poster Session
16:15 – 18:15 Facilitated Session. Brain Clearance: A Sleep-Active Biology?
Natalie Hauglund – Cleaning the dynamic brain: sleep, wakefulness, and the stuff in between
Nick Franks – A reappraisal of the glymphatic hypothesis. Brain clearance during sleeping and waking
Laura Lewis – Cerebrospinal fluid dynamics in the human brain across sleep and wakefulness
Facilitated Panel: Maiken Nedergaard, Natalie Hauglund, Nick Franks, Laura Lewis, Siddharthan Chandran.
Session Facilitators: Jeffrey Iliff, Lauren Hablitz
18:30 – 21:00 Drinks and finger food buffet at the Oxford Natural History Museum
Tuesday, 31 March 2026 – CSF Clearance, Immune Interactions, and Modelling
08:00 – 08:30 – Arrival
08:30 – 09:30 – Keynote Speaker – Jonathan Kipnis
Redefining CNS immune privilege
Moderator: Roslyn Bill
09:30 – 10:45 – Session 3. Brain Clearance: Interactions with CSF Circulation and Clearance
Maria Lehtinen – Simultaneous tracking of CSF signals using mouse models
Deidre Jansson – Circadian dysregulation of the choroid plexus with age and amyloid pathology
Petr Pleskač – In vivo high-resolution imaging of CSF outflow in mice
Viktor Neumaier – Cerebrospinal fluid flow and clearance driven by lateral ventricle volume oscillations
Panel Q/A
Moderator: Iben Lundgaard
10:45 – 11:15 Coffee Break
11:15 – 12:35 – Session 4. Brain Clearance: Neuro-Immune Interactions
Molly Braun – Neutrophil extracellular traps impair glymphatic function and promote amyloid pathology in Alzheimer’s disease
Elizabeth Cooper – Childhood brain tumors instruct cranial haematopoiesis and immunotolerance
Luise Schlotterose – From injury to degeneration: delayed lipid-mediated neurotoxic mechanisms in an in-a-dish astrocyte model of repeated mild traumatic brain injury
Carlos Parra-Pérez – Neutrophil Extracellular Traps Mediate Glymphatic Dysfunction and Cognitive Decline After Stroke
Won-Suk Chung – Excitatory neuronal ERBB4 promotes early pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease
Panel Q/A
Moderator: Sandro Da Mesquita
12:35 – 13:45 Lunch (Meet the Editor Session 2)
13:45 – 14:55 – Session 5. Brain Clearance: Computational Modeling
Jeff Tithof – Numerical simulations reveal complementary function of the blood-brain barrier and glymphatic system that amplifies amyloid-beta clearance
Peter Bork – Minimal biophysical models of brain clearance can resolve current paradoxes
Johannes Weickenmeier – Multiphysics modeling of age-related changes to hemodynamic brain pulsatility
Anne Skeldon – Sleep-dependent processes contributing to clearance of amyloid beta: a modelling approach
Panel Q/A
Moderator: Douglas Kelley
14:55 – 16:15 – Poster Session
16:15 – 18:15 – Facilitated Session. Pathways for CSF Clearance
Sandro Da Mesquita – APOE4 and sex interact to regulate brain immunity and lymphatic drainage
Gou Young Koh – CSF exit through the arachnoid fenestrations and dural lymphatics
Steven Proulx – New insights into CSF clearance pathways from the brain and spine
Facilitated Panel: Sandro De Mesquita, Gou Young Koh, Steven Proulx, Jonathan Kipnis
Session Facilitators: Helene Benveniste, Roslyn Bill
18:30-22:00 Formal Conference Dinner (Dining Hall at Keble College)
Wednesday, 1 April 2026 – Clinical Implications and Applications
08:00 – 08:30 – Arrival
08:30 – 09:30 Keynote Talk – Bart De Strooper
The different phases and inflection points in the course of Alzheimer’s Disease
Moderator: Mootaz Salman
09:30-10:45 Session 6. Brain Clearance: Approaches to Measurement
Jack Wells – Non-invasive MRI of blood-CSF-barrier function: a translational tool to improve pharmacological treatment for idiopathic intracranial hypertension and post-haemorrhagic hydrocephalus
Kent Werner – Overnight glymphatics measurement in the frontal cortex using modified near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)
Jun Hua – Imaging solute transportation along the posterior lymphatic pathway in the ocular glymphatic system in healthy human participants
Merel van der Thiel – Cardiac-cycle dependence of interstitial fluid and microvascular volume in humans using multi-b-value diffusion MRI
Panel Q/A
Moderator: Vesa Kiviniemi
10:45-11:15 Break
11:15-12:35 Session 7A. Brain Clearance: Clinical Involvement and Intervention
Tuomas Lilius – Ten years of dexmedetomidine and the glymphatic system: where do we stand?
Paul Dagum – ACX-02 enhances glymphatic function and clearance of Alzheimer’s disease proteins in humans
Manus Donahue – Neurofluid circulation in aging and in response to monoclonal antibody therapy in patients with Alzheimer’s disease
Zhao Yan – Pharmacological targeting of the glymphatic system to prevent the onset of Parkinson’s disease.
Panel Q/A
Moderator: Kent Werner
12:35-13:45 Lunch
13:45-14:55 Session 7B. Brain Clearance: Clinical Involvement and Intervention
Wenzhen Duan – Restoring aquaporin-4-mediated glymphatic clearance ameliorates neuropathology in Huntington’s disease
Adriana Della Pietra – Prazosin restores glymphatic flow and reduces facial allodynia in models of migraine and post-traumatic headache
Trine Toft-Bertelsen – TRPV4 inhibition as a pharmacotherapy for post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus
Julia Schubert – Multi-tracer positron emission tomography reveals early disruption of cerebrospinal fluid clearance in Huntington’s disease
Panel Q/A
Moderator: Roslyn Bill
14:55- 16:15 – Poster Session
16:15-18:15 Facilitated Session: MRI Measures of Glymphatic Function
Vesa Kiviniemi – Multimodal detection of human brain hydrodynamics – a road to verified cerebrofluidic therapy
Toshiaki Taoka – Diffusion MRI and Brain Clearance: Indicator, Surrogate, or Epiphenomenon?
Lydiane Hirschler – High-resolution imaging of CSF dynamics in humans
Facilitated Panel: Vesa Kiviniemi, Toshiaki Taoka, Lydiane Hirschler, Jack Wells, Jun Hua
Session Facilitators: Thijs van Osch, Mootaz Salman
18:15- 18:30 – Symposium Closing – Mootaz Salman
18:30-22:00 Informal Social Gathering (King’s Arms Pub)