The developing visual system provides a unique window into fundamental developmental events, including patterning, proliferation, differentiation, cell migration, and neural connectivity. What results from these events is a precisely organized neural system mediating the specialized sensory function of vision. The Gordon Research Conference on Visual System Development highlights common principles that regulate visual system development in both vertebrate and invertebrate animal models, providing a unique forum for cross-fertilization across various scientific communities. The goals of the conference are to promote discussion across disciplines, generate an appreciation of the similarities and differences in the assembly and function of the visual system in diverse organisms, and to share exciting new findings and concepts.

Through the meeting speakers at the forefront of the field will cover a range of disciplines, model systems and approaches in sessions that include Eye Determination, Pattern Formation and Morphogenesis, Non-Retinal Development, Signaling Networks, Central Visual System Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration, and Connectivity in the Visual System. All participants are encouraged to present a poster; additional speakers will be chosen for each session from the poster abstracts.