Meeting: Fourth Topical Meeting on C. elegans Pathogenesis, Aging, Stress, Small RNA, and Metabolism, Madison, Wisconsin, July 21-24,2016

该奖项将支持代表不足的少数族裔研究生和博士后学员参加将于2016年7月21-24日在威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校举行的第四届线虫专题会议：发病机制、衰老、压力、小RNA和新陈代谢。线虫等线虫在自然界中无处不在，在生态、农业和医学上都具有重要的意义。此外，从线虫与微生物相互作用的研究中获得的见解也广泛适用于许多其他动物。这次会议吸引了来自许多不同学科的科学家，从而为新的跨学科合作和尖端思想交流提供了肥沃的土壤。作为更广泛的影响，会议由初级教员组织，为研究生和博士后实习生提供展示他们工作的机会，从而为科学传播和职业发展提供机会，并为强大的美国生物医学劳动力做出贡献。2016年的会议提供了一个新颖的计划，其中分组会议是专门为促进杰出科学家和年轻学员之间的交流而设计的。该奖项将为有前途的年轻调查人员的出席和演讲提供支持，其中包括妇女和代表性不足的少数族裔作为重点。此外，还将在现场提供托儿所，这将加强年轻调查人员，特别是妇女的参与。NSF赞助的最佳海报奖(本科生、研究生和博士后类别)和新的蠕虫艺术展是通过视觉艺术促进科学交流的其他关键创新。会议讨论的结果将通过在wormbase.org上在线获取摘要的方式向科学界传播。从大量工作中可以清楚地看到，宿主-微生物的相互作用渗透到宿主生理的各个方面，包括它的寿命、对抗环境压力的能力、它的新陈代谢以及它的表观基因调控。在任何其他实验系统中，对衰老、应激反应、小RNA对表观遗传基因的调控以及新陈代谢的研究往往很少考虑宿主与微生物相互作用的中心相关性。但在线虫身上就不是这样了。现在很明显，从线虫宿主-微生物相互作用研究中获得的见解广泛适用于线虫分支以外的许多动物物种。全面研究宿主-微生物相互作用的复杂机制及其对宿主生理的影响需要一个实验上易于处理的模式生物，其中线虫是无与伦比的。这是关于线虫应激反应中的宿主-微生物相互作用和小RNA的表观遗传学的第一次会议。

This award will support participation of under-represented minority graduate students and postdoctoral trainees in the 4th C. elegans Topical Meeting: Pathogenesis, Aging, Stress, Small RNAs, and Metabolism to be held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, July 21-24, 2016. Nematodes like C. elegans are ubiquitous in nature, and are important ecologically, agriculturally, and medically. Furthermore, insights gleaned from studies of C. elegans interactions with microbes are broadly applicable to many other animals. The meeting draws scientists from many different disciplines, thus proving fertile ground for new inter-disciplinary collaborations and exchange of cutting-edge ideas. As broader impacts, the Meeting is organized by junior faculty members and provides opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral trainees to present their work, thus providing opportunities for science dissemination and career development, and contributing to a strong U.S. biomedical workforce. The 2016 Meeting provides a novel program, in which break-out sessions are specifically designed to foster communication between distinguished scientists and young trainees. The award will provide support for attendance and presentations by promising young investigators, including women and underrepresented minorities as a focus. In addition dependent day-care will be available on site, which will enhance participation of young investigators, particularly women. NSF-sponsored awards for best poster (undergraduate, graduate, and postdoc categories) and for a new Worm Art show are other key innovations that promote science communication through the visual arts. Results discussed at the meeting will be disseminated to the scientific community by having abstracts accessible online at wormbase.org.As is clear from a large body of work, Host-Microbe Interactions pervade every aspect of host physiology, including its longevity, ability to confront environmental stress, its metabolism, and its epigenetic gene regulation. In any other experimental system, the study of aging, stress responses, epigenetic gene regulation by small RNA, and metabolism are often conducted with little regard for the central relevance of host-microbe interactions. Not so in C. elegans. It is now clear that the insights gleaned from C. elegans host-microbe interaction studies are broadly applicable to many animal species beyond the nematode clade. Comprehensive study of the intricate mechanisms of host-microbe interaction and their consequences on host physiology mandates an experimentally tractable model organism, of which C. elegans is unrivaled. This is the premier meeting focused on host-microbe interactions in stress responses and epigenetics of small RNA in C. elegans.