The Club de Neurobiologie des Invertébrés (Invertebrate Neurobiology Club) was created at an impromptu meeting held by myself and several other researchers in May 1999, following the Symposium « Genetic and Functional Neurobiology of Invertebrates » at the 4th Colloque de la Société des Neurosciences, held that year in Marseille. The Club’s initial aim was « to promote, on the occasion of at least one annual meeting, exchanges between researchers who study the development and physiology of the nervous system using genetic or functional approaches on invertebrate models ». The Club was intended to overcome a lack of interaction between researchers in this field, and of representation of their work in France, and was founded as an Association open to all interested researchers and students, in return for a symbolic membership fee.
The first « Club Meeting » was organized a few months later on the Luminy campus in Marseille, in February 2000. Around 50 researchers attended the meeting, many of whom are still active in the field today. Others have joined us since then, so that the number of participants in our meetings has always been of the same order, taking into account those who have retired or moved on to other horizons. At the time, I had no idea that the Club would last so long, but something has ensured that meetings have been held without interruption every year (with the exception of 2020). This is undoubtedly due to the interest of the debates and exchanges of ideas during these meetings, without protocol or ostentation, during which all participants, students and PIs alike, are invited to present their work and express themselves freely, to the high scientific level of the lectures and communications, and the undeniable pleasure of meeting colleagues who speak the same language and are interested in bees, fruit flies, butterflies, cuttlefish, nematodes, annelids, cockroaches, leeches, aphids, shrimps and other organisms that are often poorly represented in generic neuroscience symposia, despite all that these models have contributed and continue to contribute to our understanding of the nervous system. Last but not least, it’s due to the ever-renewed respect and friendship between Club members, and perhaps to the traditional Thursday evening banquet…
The idea of never holding our meetings in the same place two years in a row has also helped to increase their appeal, as shown by the chronological list of host cities from 2000 to 2022: Marseille, Toulouse, Gif-sur-Yvette, Caen, Montpellier, Paris, Cassis, Versailles, Toulouse, Dijon, Angers, Montpellier, Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Gif-sur-Yvette, Cassis, Dijon, Versailles, Orléans, Lyon (in zoom), and this year again, Montpellier!
Finally, I’d like to mention and thank the people who, in addition to myself, took charge of organizing the meetings, or who, through their presence and interest, made up what has been called the Club’s « hard core »: François Agnès, Sylvia Anton, Catherine Armengaud, Cécile Bellanger, Jean-Louis Bessereau, Daniel Cattaert, Alison Cartereau, Thomas Chartier, Baya Chérif-Zahar, Thomas Chertemps, Raymond Chichery, Matthieu Dacher, Nathalie Davoust-Nataf, Jean-Marc Devaud, Jean-Maurice Dura, Jean-François Ferveur, Monique Gauthier, Angela Giangrande, Martin Giurfa, Yves Grau, Brigitte Grima, Yaël Grosjean, Guillaume Isabel, Sabi Abdul-Raouf Issa, Emmanuelle Jacquin-Joly, André Klarsfeld, Jean-Charles Liévens, Philippe Lucas, Martine Maïbèche-Coisné, Sébastien Malpel, Jean-René Martin, Bertrand Mollereau, Véronique Morel, Marie-Laure Parmentier, Emmanuel Périsse, Thomas Préat, Nathalie Pujol, Thomas Riemensperger, Thomas Rival, François Rouyer, Laurent Seugnet, Alain and Colette Strambi, Denis Tagu, Steeve Hervé Thany, Hervé Tricoire, Hélène Tricoire-Leignel, Jan Adrianus Veenstra, hoping we haven’t forgotten too many people…
And finally, a thought for our Treasurer, Jean-Maurice Dura, without whom none of this would have been possible!
Serge Birman
Club de Neurobiologie des Invertébrés 