HOME

THE BASAL GANGLIA CLUB : ITS HISTORY

At the end of the 1990s, Jacques Glowinski, Professor at the Collège de France in Paris, had the idea of creating a Club des Ganglions de la Base (CGB). At the beginning, meetings were organized in general at the Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital between scientists and clinicians working on basal ganglia and the Club des Mouvements Anormaux which already existed at that time and gathered many clinicians.

The CGB was created in 2004 as an association under the French Law of 1901. Under the successive presidencies of André Nieoullon, Marie-Lou Kemel, Marc Savasta, Thomas Boraud and Véronique Sgambato, the objective of this club was to promote the development of research in the fields of neuroscience related to movement and behavior. Very active for many years, the club has dwindled, in connection with the economic difficulties that affect our research laboratories.

The club was revived via the election of a new executive in June 2018 and the appointment of new board members. In 2023, a new executive board has been elected for a 2-year period and the Club des Ganglions de la Base became The Basal Ganglia Club.

EXECUTIVE BOARD RENEWAL

Dear friends and colleagues,

It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that we introduce ourselves as the new board of the Basal Ganglia Club (BGC). This year marks a symbolic milestone, as the BGC will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2024! We extend our gratitude to everyone who has contributed to its existence over the years under the successive presidencies of André Nieoullon, Marie-Lou Kemel, Marc Savasta, Thomas Boraud, and most recently Véronique Sgambato. Special thanks go to Véronique, who had the delicate task of managing the BGC during the COVID crisis, which significantly disrupted our activities in recent years. Despite these challenges, meetings continued to take place, allowing our community to gather periodically for high-quality scientific exchanges.

At the most recent meeting on January 30, 2023, we were elected during the general assembly to take over the leadership. Now that the administrative handover has (finally!) been completed, we would like to share some ideas for the upcoming term. Naturally, we will continue the BGC’s historic activities, including its annual meetings, with the next one scheduled for 2024. Additionally, we believe it is necessary to diversify and strengthen the BGC’s missions to adapt to the evolving landscape of our disciplines and ensure its long-term sustainability. We are therefore proposing three new initiatives that we hope will enhance interactions within our community and open new perspectives, particularly for younger researchers:

  1. The creation of a “BGC Journal Club” to be held online monthly or bi-monthly and managed by Ph.D. students and postdocs, in collaboration with the board. This activity will facilitate discussions on recent discoveries and foster more regular exchanges among members.
  2. A partnership with the SWEBAGS association to combine our activities (symposia, journal club) and establish stronger connections between our labs in the future. This collaboration aims to promote exchanges, internships, and postdoctoral opportunities for students in both countries. To kick off this partnership, we propose applying to organize a satellite event at FENS 2024, which we hope will officially seal the collaboration.
  3. Outreach to other disciplines that have increasingly contributed to basal ganglia research in recent years. In particular, we aim to connect with scientific communities working in the field of computational neuroscience, as well as clinician-researchers interested in neuropsychiatric disorders. To this end, we plan to organize thematic sessions at our events or even joint conferences, similar to those held with SOFMA in the field of neurology.

We hope these proposals inspire you as much as they do us, and we are, of course, open to all additional suggestions. As you know, the BGC’s success depends on your active participation to ensure effective management and maintain the vibrancy of our various events. We are therefore calling on motivated individuals to join the expanded administrative committee, whether you are senior researchers or younger members, whom we believe will be key to driving new initiatives. If you are interested in joining the expanded board of the BGC, regardless of your position within your lab, please let us know by sending us an email. Feel free to share this letter with your colleagues and students who might be interested in joining if they have not already done so.

With warm regards,

The board members,
Eric Burguière
Elodie Fino
Clémentine Bosch-Bouju