Nervous System Assembly, Plasticity, and Disease

The nervous system is the most complex tissue in the human body. The formation and maintenance of this amazing structure entails sophisticated mechanisms that drive the specification of appropriate cell fates in along the spatial and temporal axes, and the formation and fine-tuning of highly specific cell-cell contacts that are crucial for organisms to properly sense and respond to their environment. The 2016 Gordon Conference on Neural Development in Newport, Rhode Island, will bring together an international group of scientists that have made breakthroughs in our understanding of nervous system development and significantly advanced the field. Topics covered will include neural stem cell biology, specification and morphogenesis of neurons and glia, synaptogenesis, neural circuit refinement, and neural dysfunction in disease, especially in the context of neurodevelopmental disorders. The meeting will additionally highlight recent technological advances in molecular genetics and imaging that have rapidly propelled the field forward, and a diversity of experimental approaches and model systems (e.g. C. elegans, Drosophila, zebrafish, mammals) will be represented. Each talk will be followed by extensive discussion and there will be ample opportunity for additional interaction between students, postdoctoral associates, young and senior faculty, in the informal setting of the GRC. Some short talks by participants will be selected from submitted poster abstracts. In addition, the second Neural Development Gordon Research Seminar will be held in conjunction with this long standing GRC to further facilitate participation among young investigators. Members of underrepresented minority groups are especially encouraged to attend.