This proposal is to provide support for junior investigators, post-doctoral fellows and students to attend the 13th Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Neurotrophic Factors at Salve Regina University, Newport RI from June 4-9, 2017. The meeting will be attended by approximately 150 participants and will feature work on diverse neurotrophic factors, their basic mechanisms of action as well as their functions in behavior and disease. Neurotrophic factors are extracellular proteins that act on developing or mature neural cells to influence cell survival, neural differentiation, and circuit connectivity and function. Defects in neurotrophic factor activities are linked to a broad variety of neurological conditions, including neurodegenerative diseases and neural injury, as well as neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism and cognitive dysfunction. The objectives of this grant are to provide support for a meeting that will foster interactions amongst diverse researchers who study neurotrophic factors in health and disease. The field of neurotrophic factor research is highly multidisciplinary, with researchers ranging from molecular/cell biologists to systems biologists, electrophysiologists, and human biologists interested in brain disorders. The philosophy of this conference is that the very best science will result from collaborations and interactions amongst these diverse researchers. Thus, a primary objective of the upcoming GRC is to foster and strengthen those interactions, leading to scientific excellence and providing a chance for young investigators to learn about the important questions and challenges. Additionally, this conference will promote a sense of community among researchers studying neurotrophic factors. Science is an international endeavor, and the field of neurotrophic factors is no exception. This meeting will feature international scientists in the field, and will highlight many of the accomplished scientists in the field who are women or members of under-represented minorities. In so doing, this meeting will achieve its second objective, to enhance the sense of a global community, and to break down barriers to the interactions that allow research to move from the bench to the clinic. Finally, this meeting will provide opportunities for young researchers to present their work and interact with the broad neurotrophic factors community. This meeting will encourage communication of ideas at the frontiers of the area, including a session of hot topics, short talks presented predominantly by students and postdoctoral fellows.
This GRC conference will bring together investigators addressing the cellular mechanisms of action of neurotrophic factors in the nervous system, and how they impact neural function, behavior, and disease. Sessions on the cell biology of neurotrophic factors will inform how these factors impact function in the developing, mature, and degenerating nervous system, and ultimately influence behavior. Advances in our understanding of neurotrophic factors are likely to identify targets for development of new drugs for treatment of neurological disease.
