The current application is for support for the 45th annual ASN meeting to be held in Long Beach, CA from March 8-12, 2014. NIH funding for previous ASN meetings has been invaluable for supporting our scientific programs and for enhancing our ability to involve graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the ASN meeting. To accommodate the breadth of neurochemistry as well as cellular and molecular neurobiology and to provide in depth analyses of particular topics, the ASN continues to build its scientific program around four interwoven, but distinct, themes. These themes have been selected to increase our understanding of the cellular and molecular basis of neural development and disease. These four themes are: 1) Building the Nervous System, 2) Cellular Metabolism and Neurotransmission, 3) Glial Function in Health and Disease, and 4) Neurodegeneration. Four plenary speakers have accepted our invitation to participate in the 45th ASN meeting, each one addressing one of the four themes. The ASN is strongly committed to the representation of women and racial/ethnic minorities at its meetings. In this regard, one of the four plenary speakers is female, 39% of the Chairs/Co-Chairs of Symposia, Colloquia and Workshops are female, and 8% of the Chairs/Co-Chairs is from racial/ethnic minorities. The ASN meeting provides numerous opportunities for delegates to exchange ideas and to form new collaborations because total attendance is approximately 500 and there are numerous spaces in our program for delegates to congregate informally. The Society also has several mechanisms to enhance the professional development of junior investigators during the meeting. We organize meetings with the plenary speakers, which gives attendees a chance to discuss topics with the speakers. The fees for these meetings are reduced for students and postdoctoral fellows. There is a social mingle exclusively for students and postdoctoral fellows, which is repeatedly recognized as an outstanding opportunity to network. There is a function entitled """"""""Women in Neurochemistry"""""""", that is open to all attendees, and junior investigators have reduced fees. There are up to 6 Oral Sessions that are selected from abstracts submitted, with an emphasis on choosing presentations from graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. There are travel awards for outstanding graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to defray their costs of attendance. We host a job posting site and students can meet with potential future mentors or colleagues during the meeting. Most recently, we added a half-day program for visiting high-school students to engage these future scientists during their formative years. From results of yearly exit surveys, we know that the annual ASN meeting has and will continue to provide an excellent venue for cutting edge neurochemistry a n d n e u r o b I o l o g y , and for enhancing the careers of young investigators.
This proposal requests support for the 45 annual meeting of the American Society for Neurochemistry taking place March 8-12, 2014 in Long Beach, California. Support for this meeting will provide invaluable assistance to this Society to publicly present new developments in neurochemistry and neurobiology. This annual meeting provides the latest information on advances in molecular and cellular neurobiology, and studies on numerous neurological diseases are presented. A Public Forum is held, which is advertised and focused on presenting information to the general public, this year on Marijuana: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. A large part of the support requested ($26,000) will help keep registration fees low for young investigators, and be used to support educational and networking events for high school students, graduate students, postdocs, young investigators, women and minorities.
