The neuroscience community converged in San Diego for Neuroscience 2025, the flagship annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Held from November 15–19 at the San Diego Convention Center, the conference brought together thousands of researchers, clinicians, industry scientists, and trainees for five days of scientific presentations, poster sessions, workshops, and networking.
Neuroscience 2025 is one of the largest scientific gatherings worldwide, drawing attendees from dozens of countries and across every career stage. The program spans the full spectrum of neuroscience—from fundamental molecular biology to translational and clinical advances—delivered through high-profile lectures, symposia, minisymposia, panels, and late-breaking research.
Major Themes Defining Neuroscience 2025
As the Society for Neuroscience described in this year’s Program & Exhibit Guide, the meeting “blends every topic in neuroscience — from high-level lectures to detailed posters — and produces a one-of-a-kind vintage of inspiration.” The 2025 agenda reflects several major scientific themes that are shaping the future of the field:
- Neurodevelopment
How the brain forms, organizes, and matures—from stem cells to fully developed neural circuits. - Synapses, Signaling & Glia
A continued surge of interest in glial cell biology and its role in neural plasticity, metabolism, and disease. - Aging & Neurodegeneration
Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body disorders, immune aging, and mitochondrial health remain central areas of focus. - Neuroimmune & Neurovascular Interactions
How inflammation, immune signaling, and the brain’s vascular system contribute to both health and pathology. - Behavior, Cognition & Emotion
Advances in understanding memory, attention, decision-making, sensory processing, and affective states. - Neurotechnology & Big Data
Rapid growth in AI-enabled analysis, high-density electrophysiology, next-generation imaging, spatial-omics, and human brain atlases. - Translational & Clinical Neuroscience
Biomarkers, disease mechanisms, therapeutic discovery, and improved clinical models—particularly for neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders.
Topics Generating the Most Excitement
A few areas clearly stood out as high-interest across posters, talks, and hallway discussions:
- AI-driven research and emerging neurotechnologies
- Immune-brain interactions in aging and disease
- Mitochondrial health as a core driver of neurodegeneration
- Large-scale human-brain atlas data and single-cell mapping
- Next-generation Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease models
- Synapse- and glia-centered mechanisms of brain dysfunction
These themes reflect a broader trend that neuroscience is becoming increasingly integrative, combining cellular biology, systems neuroscience, computation, and translational science to uncover new therapeutic opportunities.
Spotlight: Gain Therapeutics Presents New Findings on GT-02287
Gain Therapeutics presented new preclinical findings at Neuroscience 2025 with the poster:
“GT-02287, a small-molecule allosteric modulator of the lysosomal enzyme glucocerebrosidase (GCase), also affects GCase at the level of the mitochondria.”
This work highlights the growing recognition that lysosomal dysfunction and mitochondrial impairment are interconnected drivers of Parkinson’s disease (PD), particularly in individuals with GBA1 mutations—the most significant genetic risk factor for PD.
