16th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for Developmental Neurobiology

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The 2006 International Society for Developmental Neuroscience (ISDN) meeting will take place in Banff, Canada in August, 2006, and represents the biannual meeting of the ISDN, an international organization based in the United States. This meeting is a premier developmental neuroscience meeting open to all, which usually attracts 400-500 international participants. The meeting itself has three primary goals. First, to disseminate information and unpublished data in both the development and neurological/psychiatric disease fields, and to promote enhanced links between these different communities. Second, to foster interactions and collaborations amongst scientists worldwide. Third, to provide a forum for interactions between students and postdoctoral fellows and more established senior scientists. In this regard, the meeting is very cost-attractive for trainees, and as a consequence, this group usually comprises approximately half of the attendees. The program for ISDN 2006 has been established, and is comprised of 55 scientists who are both well known and at more junior stages of their careers (see attached program; all of the speakers are confirmed). Five of six plenary speakers (including Nobel prize winner Linda Buck) and 30 of the symposium chairs/speakers are based in the USA, and 10 of the speakers are women. The program spans many areas of developmental neuroscience, as well as psychiatric and nervous system conditions and diseases that include autism, Fragile X Syndrome, perinatal stroke, and brain tumors. The meeting runs from the evening of Aug. 24th to the afternoon of Aug. 28th, and is comprised of (a) two hour-long plenary lectures per day, (b) two sets of two concurrent symposia, which include both invited speakers and short oral presentations chosen from the abstracts, and (c) poster sessions. Project Narrative (Relevance): Mental health and neurological disabilities currently represent major unmet medical needs in our society. Many mental health disorders, including autism and schizophrenia, and many neurological disorders, such as mental retardation and cerebral palsy, arise developmentally. In this meeting, we hope to make a major contribution to resolving these medical problems by bringing together scientists interested in development of the nervous system with those interested in these major public health problems. Such interactions are essential if we are to attack these problems in a cohesive, rational fashion. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]