The proposed American Federation for Medical Research (AFMR)-sponsored Translational Research Symposia will take place during the Experimental Biology (EB) meeting held annually in April. The EB meeting is a multi-society, interdisciplinary, biomedical, scientific conference that is sponsored by six professional societies with the participation of over 25 guest societies, including the AFMR. This meeting typically draws more than 12,000 independent scientists largely involved in basic, laboratory-based biomedical research. Since 2003, the AFMR has been privileged to organize and sponsor four Translational Research Symposia at the EB meetings. These AFMR symposia have provided a forum for the presentation of """"""""bench to bedside"""""""" research on varied cutting-edge, clinically important topics. In recent years these symposia have been successful in drawing capacity audiences, such that all of last year's symposia were """"""""standing room only."""""""" Although these programs have been tremendously successful, the AFMR has required partnerships in order to fund them. With pharmaceutical funding inconsistent at best, the future of these valuable symposia has been put in jeopardy. With this grant we hope to securely establish continuation of the AFMR Translational Research Symposia series for the EB meetings. Following the tradition of previous years, the annual thematic scientific symposia topics will be investigator-initiated and peer-reviewed to select those which showcase both cutting edge science and the continuum from basic laboratory research towards and into clinical applications. As part of the series we plan to add a special symposium-workshop focused on the practical aspects of developing translational and clinical research to provide a forum for training and promoting the development of bridging research among EB conference participants. Members of the AFMR Council, representing medical researchers in diverse research fields, from different institutions and clinical specialties, together with the AFMR organizational management, will oversee the symposia solicitation, review and administration. The AFMR conference committee consisting of Dr. Deborah Zucker (current AFMR president), Dr. Abdullah Salahudeen (current AFMR Vice President for Meetings) and members of the AFMR executive and National Council, will be responsible for insuring the selection of thematic symposia with high scientific quality and in congruence with the thrust of this grant proposal. Chairs of the individual thematic symposia, selected through the peer-review process, will be responsible for organizing their sessions. The AFMR conference personnel will organize the annual translational research development workshop. Proceedings from both the symposia and workshops will then be published in the AFMR peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Investigative Medicine.
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