The meeting of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology society is the singular, annual event for this interdisciplinary field. The meeting will be composed of three invited symposia, paper sessions, poster sessions, and workshops including sessions on science education using space biology as a motivating topic. Spaceflight effects on immune function, host immunity, microbial virulence, as well as novel approaches to vaccine development will be a featured topic at the meeting, reflecting excitement stirred by recent results. Because the microgravity environment of space presents special opportunities for understanding the translation of gravity-related stimuli into perception, another symposium will address neurophysiological, developmental, and evolutionary data and concepts for vestibular plasticity, which have implications for biomedical problems of space adaptation, movement control and remediation as well as aging. These considerations apply to a host of related topics, including bone osteoporosis, skeletal muscle atrophy, and cardiovascular atrophy. Bioengineering issues and cellular science will also be represented by a forward-looking symposium addressing tissue engineering, synthetic biology, and the use of bioreactors. Submitted papers and posters will cover all these topics. Student involvement and effective science education are also emphasized with the conference activities. We seek partial support for symposia speakers, student travel, poster display rental, and transport to activities at the nearby NASA center.
The meeting of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology society will host three symposia. The speakers will cover fundamental and biomedical-related research, including spaceflight effects on immune competence and microbe virulence, microgravity effects on neural plasticity as well as bone and muscle adaptation, photobiology and plant growth, and bioengineering studies of tissues and synthetic biology on cellular levels.
