Schizophrenia (SZ) is a serious mental disorder characterized by hallucinations, delusions, and impaired cognitive behavior. Substantial heterogeneity in the clinical phenotypes complicates its diagnosis and treatment. The pathogenesis results from a complex interaction between genetic vulnerability and environmental factors, altering neuronal development particularly. Indeed, several genes and proteins associated with neurite growth, neuronal migration, and synaptic development are altered in SZ. However, the processes of neurodifferentiation and functional maturation of neuronal networks are still largely unexplored. Therefore, the exploration with multimodal optical imaging tools of the in vitro of cortical neural cell generation using iPSCs from SZ patients and controls will help measure the maturation and organization of these cultured neuronal networks. Human iPSCs lines were differentiated into mixed cortical neural cells and characterized by flow cytometry, immunostaining, western blot, and patch-clamp techniques. To explore functional and morphological properties, we use quantitative phase digital holographic microscopy (QP-DHM) combined with fluorescence imaging. QP-DHM is a high-resolution, non-invasive technique allowing to assesse cell structure and dynamics with axial sensitivity at the nanoscale. These tools will serve to explore the excitatory and inhibitory (E/I) balance of these cultured neural networks. Such a multimodal imaging approach coupled with human iPSCs disease models holds great promises to identify cellular risk biomarkers for major psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia.

Exploring neurodifferentiation and maturation process of iPSCs derived from schizophrenia patients with multimodal optical microscopy

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PS-2-B -  Neural Excitability, Synapses, and Glia: Cellular Mechanisms

poster

Colleagues and Friends:

I am very happy to welcome you to the 14th annual Canadian Neuroscience Meeting, and to the first virtual edition of our meeting. I want to highlight the important work the CAN meeting chair, **Roger Thompson** and co-chair, **Alyson Fournier**, did to put together the great program we are offering this year. Moving to a virtual format required a complete re-design of the program, and both Roger and Alyson did a splendid job in providing us with an appealing and well adapted program for our first virtual event. I wish to thank them for this very important effort.

Highlights of this year’s scientific meeting include invited speakers **Michael Hausser, Franck Polleux, Gwyneth Card, Magdalena Götz**and Brain Prize winner **Huda Zoghbi**. Plenary and parallel symposia, proposed by our members complete our diverse [scientific program.](https://can-acn.org/meeting-2021/program-2021/)

The 2021 Advocacy session, chaired and organized by CAN advocacy committee chair **Karun Singh**, will feature a special lecture and question period with Member of Parliament and past Science Minister **Kirsty Duncan**. This will be followed by a short overview of CAN’s advocacy activities over the last year. We invite you to participate in this session for insight from Dr. Duncan on the workings of Parliament Hill, and to learn more about what CAN has been doing to promote neuroscience research in Canada.

We are also excited to host **Lisa Willis** in the Equity Diversity and Inclusion session, organized by EDI committee chair **Jibran Khokhar**.

A special highlight of our meeting will be the lectures by award-winning young neuroscientists. We are please to host the CAN 2020 Young Investigator Award winner **Mihaela Iordanova**, and CAN 2021 Young Investigator Award winners **Aaron Phillips** and **Tabrez Siddiqui**. Highlights will also include presentation by the top three winners of the CAN-CIHR-INMHA Brain Star Award winners, **Claire Gizowski, Nuria Daviu Abant** and **Lukas Tamayo-Orrego**.

Independently organized satellite symposia complement and complete this exciting program, check them out here: https://can-acn.org/meeting-2021/2021-satellite-symposia/

Some of the most engaging sessions are always the poster sessions featuring the work of our trainees, so make sure to log in to Gather Town during the poster sessions to chat with the presenters.
We hope you enjoy this program, and look forward to welcoming you, virtually.

Shernaz Bamji

President of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/b9aea25343a87d5aac3b9367dc780974.jpg)



Niraj Patel

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Exploring neurodifferentiation and maturation process of iPSCs derived from schizophrenia patients with multimodal optical microscopy

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