Abstract for "Workshop: Quantitative Approaches to Early Development"
One of the greatest challenges in biology is to understand how the complex interactions between cells in the early embryo lead to coordinated growth, form, and function. In pursuit of this understanding, scientists are increasingly turning to quantitative methodologies to complement experimental approaches based on genetic manipulations and microscopy. Quantitative methodologies are inspired by work from several disciplines. Examples include time-resolved microscopy, velocity-maps of coordinated cell movement, computer simulations, and mathematical/biophysical modeling. It is important and timely to create novel opportunities for scientists who are pioneering these quantitative approaches to meet together and learn of each others' work. This workshop in Tempe, Arizona during May 20th-23rd, 2007, is designed to provide such an opportunity. It will bring together a select group of some of the world's leading scientists in this area. The group identified includes scientists with backgrounds in cell and developmental biology, as well as physics, mathematics, and engineering. All have unique expertise in various aspects of quantitative visualization, experimentation, and computational modeling, with application to early development. The workshop is co-organized by Timothy Newman (ASU) and Cornelius Weijer (University of Dundee, UK), and will be jointly funded by the ASU Center for Biological Physics (of which Timothy Newman is a founding member) and the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems at the National Science Foundation. The meeting will consist of a set of highly focused and intimate sessions. The meeting will be open to local attendees from Arizona State University and the University of Arizona, and will encourage graduate student attendance. To ensure broader impact, especially in terms of education for graduates and postdocs in the field, we will maintain a website on which both video and power point copies of each speaker's talk will be posted, along with transcripts of discussions.
