We request partial support for the 19th Chronobiology Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and the accompanying now 2nd Gordon Research Seminar (GRS), which will be held in Girona (Spain) from June 27 to July 3, 2015. Funds received from the NIH will be used to support registration fees for GRC and GRS participants, especially postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. The conference will focus on key research areas in chronobiology - a very interdisciplinary field continuously and increasingly attracting scientists from many diverse research areas including but not limited to neuroscience, behavior (including sleep), metabolism, aging, cancer and immunology. The subtheme of the conference is Biological rhythms: mechanisms - functions - implications for health emphasizing not only the integration of diverse research fields and organisms (from bacteria to humans) but also the more and more recognized critical importance of circadian clocks for health and disease. All speakers and discussion leaders work at the forefront of science and have been selected in consultation with renowned figures in our field representing the breadth of chronobiology research, leading to an extremely high-quality program. Special attention has been given (in the speaker selection process) and will be given (in the registration process) to cultural diversity, gender balance as well as to incorporating young upcoming scientists (~35% of invited speakers of the GRC are at the Assistant Professor level). Training will be further integrated in the program by (i) assigning four additional Late-Breaking Topic talk to students and postdoctoral fellows based on submitted abstracts and (ii) reserving four talk slots for young scientists at the student and postdoctoral level selected from the preceding GRS taking place for the second time after being highly successful in 2013.The specific objectives of the 2015 conference are: 1. To provide a forum for free, unhampered discussion of the latest (unpublished) chronobiology research. This conference will feature several new measures towards this objective. 2. To bring together scientists from diverse research levels ranging from those focusing more on molecular aspects of chronobiology over physiological and organismal levels up to translational researchers studying the importance of circadian clocks for health and disease. We expect representatives from industry in attendance, which will help in this process. 3. To identify priority themes for future research (neuroscience (including sleep), aging, metabolism, immunology, pathologies etc.) by openly debating knowledge gaps and especially controversies. 4. To continuously foster interactions between trainees and senior researchers by providing a high-quality and accessible arena for scientists at very different stages of their careers.
Chronobiology GRC 2015 Project narrative The human body functions as a 24-hour machine: circadian clocks regulate a huge variety of physiological and behavioral processes with a fundamental mechanism very similar in organisms from all phyla. It is now clear that pathologies such as sleep problems, neurological disorders, metabolic disease, obesity and cancer are frequently associated with disrupted circadian rhythms - an increasingly observed phenomenon in our modern 24/7 society. This conference will bring together leading experts and trainees who are in the best position to not only uncover molecular mechanisms underlying circadian function in diverse organisms but also to translate these into applied science and policy.
