The aim of this proposal is to obtain funding to support the participation of speakers as well as more junior students and postdocs to the third Visual System Development Gordon Research Conference to be held at Roger Williams University, Bristol, Rhode Island, June 6-11, 2004. The purpose of this Gordon Conference is to bring together investigators using Drosophila and vertebrate animal models to study the development and the evolution of the visual system. The goal is to generate an understanding of common principles that regulate visual system development. This is the third time that this conference is being held as a Gordon Conference. The first incarnation of this meeting was held as the Drosophila Visual System Development Workshop in 1992. The scope of the meeting was expanded to include vertebrate systems in 1994, when the seminal paper from Walter Gehring's lab showed that the same 'master control gene' (Pax6) specifies eye organ fate in both flies and vertebrates. Visual System Development Workshops continued to provide a stimulating venue for cross-fertilization of ideas between the Drosophila and vertebrate scientific communities. The meeting was accepted as a Gordon Conference in 2000. The Gordon Conference model is an ideal fit for this conference, with a selected set of talks and ample time for discussion as well as posters providing an excellent compromise between breadth and depth in a limited agenda. This format allows for, indeed requires, ample time for both formal and informal discussion, giving participants the opportunity to interact and exchange ideas in a highly stimulating and scientifically exciting setting. This type of scientific meeting provides individual investigators with new ideas and potential collaborations, and could also serve as a strategic planning tool for generating ideas for the upcoming NEI five-year plan for vision research. The field has grown and continues to expand rapidly. Having the capacity to accept 120 people has spread the benefit of The Visual System Development conference more widely.
