The proposed meeting to be held at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on """"""""Axon Guidance and Neural Plasticity"""""""" will assemble leaders in the field, junior faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students to discuss new, cutting-edge developments in the field. This proposal seeks support for the second, third and fourth of a biennial series of meetings to be held at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Topics to be discussed for the 2000 meeting include: i. Mechanisms of axon guidance including the analysis of guidance signals, their reception and their translation into changes in motility through modulation of the growth cone cytoskeleton; ii. Studies on map formation in the visual and olfactory systems, as well as mechanisms of synapse formation; and iii. Mechanisms of plasticity, including the relationship between learning and neuronal connectivity. Diverse experimental approaches (e.g. biochemistry and genetics) and systems (i.e. various vertebrate and invertebrates) will be highlighted. With the genomic sequences of model organisms and human rapidly approaching completion, communication between workers in this field is essential to exploit the experimental and technical advantages of different organisms to pursue the mechanistic basis of common fundamental mechanisms in axon guidance and plasticity. Oral presentations will be selected by the session chairs in consultation with the organizers. Each session will be chaired by two leading scientists in the field. Selected speakers will include graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty. Two special lectures will be presented to provide essential background critical to stimulating discussion between scientists working on plasticity and those working on axon guidance. There will also be two poster sessions where many participants can present their work. The meeting will be of moderate size and we expect about 300 people to attend.
