Molluscan Neuroscience Conference to be held February 13-16, 2009, at the University of Puerto Rico

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This project is for partial support of the Moluscan Neuroscience 2009 conference to be held February 13-16, 2009 at the Institute of Neurobiology, a free-standing unit of the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus. This is the third conference dedicated exclusively to Molluscan Neuroscience since 1997. The other conferences were the Cell and Molecular Biology of Aplysia and Related Invertebrates meetings held at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in 1992 and 1997. This meeting has as one of its goals to enhance interaction among investigators in the field with a format and scale modeled on the CSHL meetings held in the 90's. The meeting will bring together world experts and students in an environment geared towards interaction, participation and discussion of the latest ideas and findings in the field. It will assemble the international community of neuroscientists and students who use molluscan models to investigate a wide spectrum of fundamental neurobiological problems.Sessions and symposia will address specific thematic areas in which this field has been most influential. These include: Learning and Memory, Central Pattern Generators, Evolution of Neural Circuits and Behaviors, Development, Neuromodulation, Ion Channels, and Signal Transduction. Emphasis will be placed on platforms designed to increase the accessibility of these resources to the broader Neuroscience community. Workshops will be organized to discuss the use of new tools such as the emerging Genome Projects for Aplysia and related gastropods, cephalopod genomics, genomic and microchemical analysis of single cells and cell compartments, and NeuronBank.org initiatives for archiving identified neurons and their homologs across species. NSF funds will enable multiple educational and outreach initiatives by providing travel, housing, and registration support for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who could not otherwise attend. Emphasis will be placed on promoting participation of junior investigators, women, local students from Puerto Rico, and members of other groups that are under-represented in this field. This outreach reflects a firm conviction that the greatest beneficiary of such broadened participation will be the field of Molluscan Neuroscience itself. The host institution will provide administrative support and all funds related to the conference venue.