This project will provide partial support for the 13th biennial international meeting in the Neurobiology of Drosophila Meeting series to be held September 29 - October 3, 2009 at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY. The meeting brings together a group of junior and senior scientists to discuss the latest advances in the neurobiology research being made in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. The conference has an excellent track record for highlighting the work of younger investigators and women. To ensure a high level of diversity for such a small meeting graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, junior faculty and underrepresented minorities at all levels are invited to attend. To encourage participation by junior investigations a special lecture will be presented by a graduate student who has written the best Ph.D. thesis since the previous meeting. The 2009 meeting focuses on advances made using the combined power of genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, electrophysiology, imaging, and behavioral analysis to address fundamental issues in neurobiology. The topics covered will range from (i) sensory systems coding and topographic mapping of inputs for odor, taste, vision and mechanosensation (ii) behavioral analyses of reproduction, locomotion, feeding, and social interactions; (iii) higher brain functions such as memory, learning, sleep, choice and attention; (iv) developmental and functional analysis of brain circuits; (v) synapse development and plasticity; (vi) embryonic and metamorphic development of the brain; and a newly-devised session on (vii) the impact of comparative genome analyses on neural evolution. As a result of feedback from previous participants this meeting will remain of moderate size (430 participants) and will have no parallel sessions so as to facilitate discussion, exchange of ideas and techniques, and to promote new collaborations in this rapidly-evolving field. All applicants will be encouraged to submit an abstract and the majority of participants will present a talk or poster. Speakers will be chosen by session leaders and meeting organizers from the most timely and interesting abstracts submitted a few months in advance of the conference: this will ensure that late-breaking science is covered in all of the talks. It is expected that the findings and approaches presented at this meeting, as it is true for those held over the last 25 years, will result in novel and significant advances in our understanding of basic neurobiology in other organisms.
