Meheli Banerjee: From Lab Bench to DANDRITE Symposium

Last month around this time, I found myself leaving the house at 4:30 in the morning to catch a flight from Helsinki airport. Destination: Aarhus, Denmark. After a short pause in Copenhagen and a bus ride across the countryside, I was finally there — ready to spend two days immersed in science at the DANDRITE Symposium. The theme was The Adaptive Brain, and the talks were every bit fascinating as the title promised. What struck me most was not just the results being presented, but also the big questions the researchers were asking.

The keynote lectures were especially memorable. Dr. Anne Schaefer from the Max Planck Institute shared her group’s work on microglia and the epigenetic mechanisms of cellular plasticity in neurodegeneration. Later, Dr. Elly Nedivi from MIT took us into the world of synapse formation and elimination in the mouse neocortex, combining elegant genetic tools with in vivo imaging — it was both scientifically impressive and visually stunning.

Other sessions that really caught my attention included Professor Vijay Tiwari’s presentation from the University of Southern Denmark, where he showed how computational and AI-driven approaches are helping to unravel the gene regulatory code underlying neurodevelopmental disorders.

Professor Jørgen Kjems from Aarhus University discussed the role of circular RNAs in neural development and disease — a particularly exciting area, as noncoding RNAs like circRNAs are increasingly being recognized as potential therapeutic targets.

Professor Fides Zenk from EPFL gave a fascinating talk on using brain organoids to reconstruct developmental trajectories of the brain, while Professor Jakob Balslev Sørensen from Copenhagen University introduced us to “SNAREopathies,” diseases of the synaptic release machinery that beautifully link molecular mechanisms with human.

Sara Sejer Sørensen from Thomas Kim’s group , presented EZ-HCR, a tissue-clearing method that dramatically reduces the process to just 10 days with much less hands-on time.

What I’ve Learned about Poster Sessions at Conferences

Amidst all this, I had the chance to present my own poster. If you’ve read my earlier posts, you already know I’m interested in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and its link to post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE), a condition that affects millions of people.

In this part of my project, I’m working to develop an in vitro system to mimic aspects of TBI-associated temporal molecular changes. The idea is to create an in vitro platform for mechanistic study and drug screening.

With three poster sessions under my belt now, here are some lessons I have learned:

1. Prepare an elevator pitch. “Could walk me through your poster?” Make sure you make the walk short, informative and engaging.
2. Keep a clear story. Easy to follow posters which only have the important pieces of the story and not all every light bulb moment you ever had.
3. Take time to design your poster. We are advised to not judge a book by its cover but good visuals always help!
4. Engage your audience. No matter how awkward it is don’t look at your phone while you wait.

I hope these lessons resonate with you. Next time you see me at a poster session, come and say hi!

Meheli Banerjee works as a doctoral researcher in the Neuro-Innovation PhD programme. Her research focuses on non-coding RNAs in the context of seizures and traumatic brain injury.