We are pleased to welcome Sergiu Pasca, MD from Stanford University on September 13, 2019 for a Special Guest Lecture. Dr. Pasca is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine and directs the Stanford Neurosciences Institute Stem Cells Core & Human Brain Organogenesis Program.

A critical challenge in understanding the intricate programs underlying development, assembly and dysfunction of the human brain is the lack of direct access to intact, functioning human brain tissue for detailed investigation by imaging, recording, and stimulation. Dr. Pasca is using pluripotent stem cells derived non-invasively from human individuals to generate in a dish specific regions of the human brain in a functional 3D preparation he and his team have developed. The Pasca lab is using months-to-years long ‘brain-a-dish’ cultures (also known as brain region-specific organoids or spheroids) to understand how neurons find their final position in the brain and how they mature functionally. To investigate how different brain regions talk to each-other in normal and diseased states, the Pasca Lab introduced a new approach for in vitro assembly of neural circuits, also known as assembloids. Dr. Pasca is employing state-of-the-art stem cell biology, genome engineering, imaging and neuroscience approaches to identify the dynamical processes that go awry in neural cells derived from patients with neuropsychiatric disorders, such as autism or schizophrenia, and what should be therapeutically targeted in these conditions.

Date & Time: September 13, 2019, 12:00pm to 1:30pm

Location: UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital Auditorium

For More Information. Please contact Frances Patrick at patrickfm@upmc.edu.

The entirety of this program will be a lecture by the speaker(s). All individuals able to control the content of this educational activity are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with any proprietary entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services, used on, or consumed by, patients. Registration is not required for this event. This event is free and there will be no refunds. The University of Pittsburgh is an affirmative action, equal opportunity institution.

Continuing Education Credit:  The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.  The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM.  Each physician should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.  Other health care professionals are awarded .15 continuing education units (CEUs), which are equal to 1.5 contact hours.  In accordance with Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education requirements on disclosure, information about relationships of presenters with commercial interests (if any) will be included in materials which will be distributed at the time of the conference.  WPH is approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists.  WPH maintains responsibility for this program and its contents.  This program is being offered for 1.5 continuing education credits.

The indicated number of clock hours of continuing education is provided through UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital’s Office of Educational Resources and Planning, a PA-approved provider of social work continuing education in accordance with all the applicable educational and professional standards of the Pennsylvania State Board of Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapist.  These clock hours satisfy requirements for LSW/LCSW, LPC and LMFT renewal.  For more information, call (412) 204-9085.