Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled Mammalian Sensory Systems, organized by Drs. Stephen Liberles, David D. Ginty, Jeffrey R. Holt and Melanie Samuel. The conference will be held in Seattle, Washington from March 15-19, 2019. Our basic external sensory systems - touch, taste, vision, hearing, and smell - enable us to perceive the world around us, and other internal sensory systems enable us to perceive the secret world within us. Recent advances have revealed the molecular logic of how some sensory systems work, while other sensory systems remain uncharted. Fields of sensory biology often maintain separate cultures, and are at varying levels of maturity, with different frontiers, unknowns, and perspectives. The goal of this meeting is to bring leading experts from different sensory fields together, and to broadcast conceptual and technical advances achieved in one sensory system that may enable new findings in others. Symposia will highlight recent advances in each external sense: vision, olfaction, taste, hearing, and touch/pain/temperature sensation, as well as new developments in the emerging field of internal organ sensation. Speakers will be included to discuss a range of topics from (1) receptors and sensory mechanisms, (2) neural circuits, (3) behavioral and physiological responses, and (4) the genetic basis of sensory deficits.
Sensory system deficits (loss of vision/hearing, chronic pain, paralysis, autonomic dysregulation) can profoundly impact health and quality of human life. Recent advances have revealed the molecular logic of how some sensory systems work, while other sensory systems remain uncharted. The goal of this meeting is to bring leading experts from different sensory fields together, and to broadcast conceptual and technical advances achieved in one sensory system that may enable new findings in others.
