The SynAGE committee members are thrilled to host ISYNC, the International SynAGE conference on healthy ageing, on 28-30 March 2022 in Magdeburg, Germany. This conference has been entirely organised from young scientists of the SynAGE research training group RTG 2413 (www.synage.de) and represents a unique occasion for researchers from all over the world to bring together and join great talks and sessions with us and our guests. A constantly updated list of our speakers can be found on the conference webpage: www.isync-md.de. During the conference, attendees will have access to a range of symposia which will deal with Glia, Biomarkers and Immunoresponses during ageing to neurodegeneration brain integrity and cognitive function in health and diseases. Moreover, the conference will offer social events especially for young researchers and the possibility to network together in a beautiful and suggestive location where our conference will take place: the Johanniskirche. The event will be happening in person, but due to the current pandemic situation and restrictions we are planning the conference as a hybrid event with lots of technical support to ensure that every participant can follow the talks and take part in the scientific discussions. The registration to our ISYNC conference is free of charge. However, the number of people attending the conference in person is restricted to 100. Afterwards, registrations will be accepted for joining virtually only. The registration is open until 15.02.2022. Especially for PhD and MD Students: Check our available Travel Grants, Poster Prize and SynAGE Award Dinner: https://www.isync-md.de/index.php/phd-md-specials/ If you need any further information don’t hesitate to contact us via email: contact@synage.de. We are looking forward to meet you in 2022 in Magdeburg to discuss about our research and ideas and bless together science. Your ISYNC organization Committee

Experience-dependent transcription is a key molecular mechanisms for regulating the development and plasticity of synapses and neural circuits and is thought to underlie cognitive functions such as perception, learning and memory. After two years of COVID-pandemic, the goal of this online conference is to allow investigators in the field to reconnect and to discuss their recent scientific findings.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that untreated mental disorders accountfor 13% of the total global burden of disease, and by 2030, depression alone will be the leadingcause of disability around the world – outpacing heart disease, cancer, and HIV. This grim pictureis further compounded by the mental health burden delivered by the coronavirus pandemic.The lack of novel treatment options in psychiatry is restricted by a limited understanding in theneuroscience basis of mental disorders, availability of relevant biomarkers, poor predictability inanimal models, and high failure rates in psychiatric drug development. However, theannouncement in 2019 from the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) for approvals of newinterventions for treatment-resistant depression (intranasal esketamine) and postpartumdepression (i.v. brexanolone), demand critical attention. Novel public-private partnerships indrug discovery, new translational data on co-morbid biology, in particular the ascendance ofpsycho-immunology, have highlighted the arrival of a new frontier in biological psychiatryresearch for depressive disorders.

Historically pregnant women and their unborn baby have been amongst those with the poorest outcomes in previous epidemics, most notably the Zika virus. For much of 2020, with the emergence of the novel coronavirus, the effect on the fetus remains unclear. While initial reports suggest that vertical transmission with SARS-CoV2 is reassuringly rare, the complex socioeconomic, domestic and broader maternal lifestyle factors which can influence a child’s lifelong well-being have been modulated during the experience of this pandemic. The developing brain is particularly susceptible to maternal stress, resulting in permanent structural changes and increased incidence of behavioural and mental health illness later in childhood. A large international longitudinal survey is being undertaken by the Department of Psychology to better understand the impact of the pandemic on those yet to be born.

Global responses to the Covid-19 pandemic have resulted in various forms of “lockdown” being imposed on citizens. These lockdown measures have resulted in significant changes to all aspects of daily life for all those who live under them. Lockdowns have however, also provided a unique opportunity for psychologists to examine how changes in the structure of daily life influence our experience of time. This talk will review recent research examining the impact on covid-19 on real-world time experience. It will look to discuss whether the factors which influence “normal” time experience also influenced time experience during lockdown. Finally, it will try to highlight some potential future directions for enhancing our understanding of real-life time distortion.

COVID -19 has affected social interaction and healthcare worldwide. This talk will focus on the impact of the pandemic and “lockdown” on mental health services, community physical health services, and patient mortality in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, based on the analysis of de-identified data from the primary NHS provider of secondary care mental health services to this population (~0.86 million)

Meg was awarded funding to look into how the coronavirus pandemic has affected children's mental health and wellbeing.

This presentation will include a brief resume of research in older populations led from Cambridge that have informed current clinical understanding and policy regarding services and prevention for and of dementia. These population studies have more recently been ‘re-purposed’ with enthusiasm from participants into a trial platform, and this also has enabled ongoing follow-up by telephone during the COVID pandemic. Although there are no formal outputs from these latter developments general impressions will be shared.

The recent pandemic arrived at a time when mental health of children and young people was deteriorating, particular among teenage girls and young women. Lockdown produced a plethora of mental health surveys, but very few of these had pre-pandemic data. This talk will summarise the current evidence of how covid-19 seems to have affected the mental health of children and young people from various studies in the UK.

The speakers will outline how neurologists in Bristol have been research-active during the COVID-19 pandemic including our contribution to national and international surveillance programmes as well as initiating research studies such as an evaluation of the impact of COVID anxiety on sleep and neurodegeneration and determining whether vascular changes in the eye predict COVID-19 severity.

Reducing protein intake (and that of key amino acids) extends lifespan, especially during mid-life and early late-life. Yet, due to a powerful protein appetite, reducing protein in the diet leads to increased food intake, promoting obesity – which shortens lifespan. That is the protein paradox. In the talk I will bring together pieces of the jigsaw, including: specific nutrient appetites, protein leverage, macronutrient interactions on appetite and ageing, the role of branched-chain amino acids and FGF-21, and then I will conclude by showing how these pieces fit together and play out in the modern industrialised food environment to result in the global pandemic of obesity and metabolic disease.