Over 200 Experts Gather in Alicante for the XI European Conference on Comparative Neurobiology

From May 6 to 8, 2025, the San Juan Complex in Sant Joan d'Alacant hosted the XI European Conference on Comparative Neurobiology (ECCN2025), an international reference event that brought together over 200 specialists from around the world to discuss the latest advances in the study of the nervous system from an evolutionary and comparative perspective. This conference, held every three years, serves as a key meeting point for researchers exploring how brains develop, organise, and diversify throughout animal evolution.

The ECCN2025 programme included over 60 oral presentations, distributed across thematic sessions addressing aspects such as neural development, the evolution of sensory and motor circuits, the functional organisation of the nervous system, neurogenesis, and comparative transcriptomics. Several poster sessions and networking events were also held to promote interdisciplinary collaboration and the exchange of ideas between generations of scientists.

The event featured significant participation from researchers at the Institute of Neurosciences (IN), a joint centre of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) of Elche. The congress was opened by Víctor Borrell, the local organiser and director of the Neurogenesis and Cortical Expansion Laboratory at IN. In his presentation, he discussed how different evolutionary lineages have developed convergent and divergent mechanisms for the formation of the cerebral cortex.

Researcher Eduardo Leyva, head of the emerging line on Molecular Mechanisms of Neuronal Identity, also participated, explaining how certain key regulatory genes can define and reconfigure neuronal identity during development and in regenerative contexts. Eloísa Herrera, director of the Bilateral Circuit Generation and Regeneration Laboratory, gave a talk exploring the molecular and cellular processes that enable the formation of binocular visual circuits during embryonic development.

Borrell highlighted that this meeting represents "a unique opportunity to bring together the international scientific community researching how the nervous system develops and evolves in different species." "It not only allows for the sharing of cutting-edge advances but also integrates comparative perspectives that span from invertebrates to mammals, including less commonly researched species such as cephalopods, fish, or birds. The diversity of models is essential to understand which aspects of the brain are universal and which are the result of specific evolutionary adaptations," the researcher explains.