The first scientific symposium of the Center of Excellence for Neural Plasticity and Brain Disorders: BRAINCITY, the Nencki-EMBL Partnership, was held on 22nd July 2019 at the Nencki Institute. Presentations were given by candidates for BRAINCITY group leaders.

BRAINCITY, which is created as an International Research Agenda within a programme of the Foundation for Polish Science, aims at starting four new scientific groups focused on neuroplasticity in health and disease. From over 25 candidates whch applied, the International Scientific Committee of BRAINCITY selected 8 candidates for the further evaluation process. As a part of the recruitment procedure, the candidates gave open lectures on their results and research plans. The presented topics included: the role of neuronal chromatin regulation in memory and cognitive disorders (Cemil Kerimoglu, German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Goettingen, Germany), the role of metabolic and epigenetic factors in pathogenesis and inheritance of brain diseases (Ali Jawaid, University of Zurich / Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland), systems biology approach to understanding how extracellular stimuli shape brain cells plasticity (Jakub Mieczkowski, Nencki Institute, Warsaw, Poland), neuronal correlates of working memory in humans (Jan Kaminski, Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, Los Angeles, USA), molecular mechanisms of pain (Marcin Szczot, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA), the role of dendritic spines in memory formation and disease (Patricio Opazo, Queensland Brain Institute, Brisbane, Australia), genomics and computational biology in revealing mechanisms of autism spectrum disorders (Gianfilippo Coppola, Yale University, New Haven, USA), and behavioral transcriptomics (Bogna Ignatowska-Jankowska, Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology, Japan). The symposium was attended by the International Scientific Committee of BRAINCITY, representatives of the Foundation for Polish Science, the Director and scientists of the Nencki Institute, as well as guests from the Ochota Campus.