On July 1^st 2017, Al-Quds University celebrated eight years since the establishment of the Palestinian Neuroscience Initiative (PNI) by hosting the PNI Research Day 2017.  A constellation of neuroscientists were invited to present their research findings, with the keynote speaker being Professor Edvard Moser, NTNU-Norway, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine 2014.

Professor Imad AbuKishk, President of Al-Quds University, gave the opening remarks which highlighted the significance of supporting research in Palestinian institutions and the role of Al-Quds University in supporting research in Palestine.  Dr. Mohammad Herzallah, Founder and Director of the PNI, spoke briefly about the establishment of the PNI, its aims, research, and accomplishments.

In the keynote lecture, Professor Edvard Moser presented his group’s research that led to the discovery of the grid cells in the entorhinal cortex.  Grid cells create a meshwork to represent space which facilitates navigation and recall of navigated paths.  Professor Moser also briefly described other discoveries his group made in identifying speed cells in the entorhinal cortex.

In the next lecture, Professor Alessandro Treves (SISSA-Italy) described how to utilize computational neuroscience and statistical physics to build networks that can simulate the function of grid cells.  Then, Dr. Matthias Treder (University of Birmingham) gave a talk about source localization in electroencephalography (EEG).  The talks were concluded by Dr. Rand Askalan, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians-Canada, who presented her research about the protection of the developing brain against ischemia.

Following the lectures, the PNI team presented their research findings in a poster session.  The topics ranged from cognitive neuroscience, neurogenetics, neuropharmacology, molecular neuroscience, neuroendocrinology, developmental neuroscience, and computational neuroscience.