This R13 application seeks funding to support graduate student/postdoctoral fellow travel awards to the annual meeting of the American Society for Neural Transplantation and Repair (ASNTR). Since its founding in 1994, the ASNTR has convened yearly each April/May in Clearwater, Florida. At the meeting, various research advances in the fields of transplantation and gene therapy applied to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury are discussed via platform and poster presentations. ASNTR focuses on treatment strategies throughout all its sessions. Thus, students and postdocs not only learn the basic sciences, they also learn translational issues, and then actually hear the clinical outcomes discussed by basic scientists and clinicians. Therefore, ASNTR is truly a unique gathering. Attendance of this meeting ranges between 150-250 registrants. Each year the ASNTR Education Committee encourages students/postdocs to submit their abstracts in a competition and the top rated applicants receive travel awards to cover the cost of their meeting attendance and travel. ASNTR has always placed a high priority on funding travel awards for students and post-doctoral fellows. This year for the first time the Education Committee will also provide a """"""""Short Course on Grantsmanship"""""""" to train students and postdocs in the art of grant writing and to increase interactions between students/postdocs and senior researchers. In the past ASNTR has received donations from biotech companies and non-profit organizations to cover these travel awards. However, in recent years ASNTR has seen these contributions dwindle and although ASNTR will continue to seek funding from the private sector, we do not anticipate any increase in contributions above recent levels in the coming years. This application requests $15,000 in total direct costs to support travel awards for the top 15 graduate students/postdocs from US institutions that apply (awards of $1000 per student/postdoc).
