The Society for Inherited Metabolic Disorders (SIMD) requests support to provide scholarships for trainees to attend its annual meetings in years 2006 and 2007. The 2006 meeting will be held in conjunction with the International Congress on Inborn Errors of Metabolism in Tokyo, while the 2007 meeting will be held in Nashville, TN, in coordination with the American College of Medical Genetics. Inborn errors of metabolism (IEM) are an important cause of mental retardation, cerebral palsy, neuromuscular disease, cardiac disorders, hepatic and renal dysfunction, arthritis, diabetes, growth failure, and blindness. As the wide clinical and molecular spectrum of these disorders is being elucidated, in part fueled by the development of tandem mass spectroscopy and the rapid expansion of newborn screening programs, the number of affected individuals is now known to be much larger than originally recognized. In addition, therapies are available for some conditions, but few clinical trials have been performed to evaluate their efficacy. Thus, much remains to be done to better understand these severe disorders and develop effective treatments for them. For the U.S. to remain preeminent in this important area of research, it is essential to attract young investigators into the field. One effective mechanism to achieve this goal is to provide them with the opportunity to participate in the SIMD meeting, where they can explore the field and develop scientific ties to other established investigators. The SIMD meeting is held annually and participation, especially by young investigators, has been steadily increasing each year. The availability of NIH travel awards has been a major reason for this increase. Trainees seeking funding are required to submit an abstract describing original research to be presented at the meeting. The organizers anticipate submission of 80 to 100 abstracts for presentation at the annual meetings in the U.S., with two-to-three times that number for the international meeting. Applications for travel awards will be competitively reviewed four months prior to the meeting, with the goal of making 20 annual awards of $750 to $1,000 each. Additional funds will be solicited from private sources. Women and minority applicants will be actively recruited. ? ? ?
