Molecular Connectivity: Best practices for data analysis
Bordeaux, June 19, 2026
We are excited to announce our second international symposium on Molecular Connectivity, entitled “Molecular connectivity: Best practices for data analysis”.
The symposium will be held on June 19th 2026 at Bordeaux (France), at Neurocampus facilities immediately following the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) annual meeting. It builds on the success of our previous events: a satellite meeting held during the Brain & Brain PET conference in Glasgow in May 2022 (374 participants – 50 in person and >1600 views on Youtube), and a first dedicated symposium held in Munich in May 2024 (242 participants – 60 in person). Both events were very successful, led to the formation of our Molecular Connectivity Working Group which holds regular online seminars, and has produced influential papers [1][2].
We have assembled a superb list of speakers with the preliminary program listed below. The symposium will provide a forum for a vibrant exchange of ideas with the aim of significantly contributing to defining best practices in data analysis in this rapidly evolving field. Please join us in this very important effort. Any updates will be posted on our website and communicated in the next newsletter – stay tuned!
8:30 – 08:40 Welcome & Introduction by the organizers
08:40 – 09:10 (30 min) Molecular connectivity in the broader context of fMRI and other modalities –Bratislav Misic, McGill University (Canada)
09:10 – 9:30 (20 min) Introduction to molecular connectivity and nomenclature in the context of the Delphi study – Sharna Jamadar, Monash University (Australia)
9:30 – 9:50 (20 min) Overview of commonly used methods for assessment of molecular connectivity with emphasis on technical aspects that require discussion – Mattia Veronese, University of Padua (Italy)
09:50 – 10:10 (20 min) Preprocessing: Data harmonization, PVC, normalization – Martin Norgaard, University of Copenhagen (Denmark)
10:10 – 10:30 Coffee break
10:30 – 10:50 (20 min) General prerequisites (population heterogeneity, statistical power), minimum number of subjects for inter- and intra-subject estimation – Arianna Sala, Université de Liège (Belgium)
10:50 – 11:10 (20 min) ROI-level estimation metrics: partial or Pearson correlation, Euclidean Similarity – Tommaso Volpi, Yale University (USA)
11:10 – 11:30 (20 min) Voxel-level estimation: SSM-PCA vs. ICA (which method and when? selection of components), seed-based correlation – Matthieu Doyen, Université de Lorraine (France)
11:30 – 11:50 (20 min) Best practices for merging molecular, functional information and clinical info – Vince Calhoun, GSU, GATech, Emory University (USA)
11:50 – 12:10 (20 min) Statistical robustness (bootstrapping, corrections) – Chris Habeck, Columbia University (USA)
12:10 – 13:00 Summary and plan for future steps
More information can be found on the event’s page.