This grant application seeks funding for the 2020 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting, which will be held on the campus of University of California at Santa Cruz from August 8-12, 2020. This biennial, grass-roots meeting has run continuously since 1992, being organized by and for the scientific community working at the cutting edge of stem, regenerative, and developmental biology. The Santa Cruz meeting occupies a unique niche by combining its international reputation with a relatively small size (~150 attendees) and a wholly new line-up of invited speakers at each gathering. As detailed in our application, we have planned for considerable participation by graduate students and postdocs by including short talks, posters, two workshops aimed at career issues, and a career-perspective talk from a prominent scientist with historical ties to the meeting. The meeting format is based around single-platform sessions, with two non-overlapping poster sessions so that all participants are engaged with the same topic and activity for the entirety of the meeting. The theme for 2020, ?Looking to the future: Open questions in Developmental Biology?, seeks to highlight the top challenges facing the field, both conceptual and technical, as we seek fresh insights into the complex mechanisms underlying organismal development, tissue renewal, and the evolution of new forms. One chief goal of this meeting will be to bring together diverse researchers in an informal setting to highlight work across a broad spectrum of relevant systems, fostering cross-interaction between research fields and synthesis of new ideas. A second major goal will be to provide a forum for undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows to present their work to leaders in the field through talks, poster sessions, and informal discussions fostered by an isolated and informal campus setting. Along with a distinguished panel of four senior keynote speakers, the six platform sessions will feature scientists working with a wide range of model organisms to address six questions that form the basis for modern developmental research: (1) How do cells make patterns? (2) How do cells work together to shape tissues? (3) How do tissues renew and regenerate? (4) How is the nervous system patterned and wired? (5) How do new patterns and shapes evolve? and (6) What can new approaches teach us about development? The discussion that will ensue among the conferees will stimulate new ideas and accelerate basic developmental research and progress toward clinically relevant applications.
Research in developmental biology has made many fundamental contributions to our understanding of congenital disease, stem cell biology, oncology and regenerative medicine. Elucidating the genetic, molecular, and cellular control of developmental processes will help us decipher the logic of multicellular life, illuminate causes of birth defects, and ultimately lead to new techniques for diagnosis and treatment of human disease. The 2020 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology meeting will bring together experts working on fundamental developmental mechanisms in order to stimulate new research directions and accelerate discovery in this dynamic and rapidly evolving field.
