This Americas Program award will support a laboratory-workshop course to familiarize young scientists with modern approaches for exploring structural events at the cell and molecular level. Using advanced imaging technologies on marine and mammalian gametes and embryos, dynamic events in the cell cycle and during development will be observed. The application of imaging equipment in the broad field of cell and developmental biology and the biological insights derived from such technology will continue to lead to important discoveries. This workshop, organized by Dr. Gerald Schatten of the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Dr. Claudio Barros, of the Catholic University, Chile, will take place in the Marine Laboratory of the Catholic University of the North, Coquimbo, Chile. The participants, young scientists on a postdoctoral level, will come from countries in South and Central America and from other countries. The program should result in a very successful exchange of scientific/technological information which could lead to long term interactions between the participants. The areas of development and reproduction are of general concern to scientists around the globe and sharing knowledge and technique in this area is essential. The global scientific community will most certainly benefit from this interaction.
