Conference: Progress and Issues in Olfactory Development

描述（由申请人提供）：直到最近，我们对初级嗅觉通路的组织和发展的理解远远落后于我们对视觉和听觉系统发育过程的理解。然而，在过去的五年里，技术和概念上的突破使人们在理解嗅觉途径方面取得了惊人的进展。提议的会议将提供嗅觉发展研究现状的及时核算。它的设计有三个具体目标：(1)确定嗅觉发育必须解决的关键难题；(2)突出解决这些难题的有希望的方法；(3)为未来几年的基本研究提供方向。因此，会议将是一个工作会议，利用一系列讨论会议作为其主要机制，其主持人和小组将反映该领域长期存在的跨系统发育传统，其中广泛的动物系统被用来研究发育和成熟的嗅觉系统。计划有七个讨论环节：1)嗅外周和嗅球的诱导和规范，2)嗅外周的分子模式，3)嗅外周的细胞发育和可塑性，4)嗅受体轴突的引导和靶向，5)肾小球的构建，6)嗅球发育中的行为诱导可塑性，7)总结，包括对未来发展方向的关注。这次会议主要面向嗅觉界的各个层次的成员，包括受训人员。几位主要研究领域是其他感官系统但对相关发展问题感兴趣的代表也将被邀请。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Until recently, our understanding of the organization and development of the primary olfactory pathway lagged far behind our understanding of developmental processes in the visual and auditory systems. In the last half decade, however, technical and conceptual breakthroughs have allowed astonishing progress toward understanding the olfactory pathway. The proposed conference will provide a timely accounting of the current status of research in olfactory development. It is designed with three specific objectives: (1) to identify critical puzzles of olfactory development that must be solved, (2) to highlight promising approaches to solving these puzzles, and (3) to provide direction for essential research in the next few years. The conference will thus be a working conference, utilizing as its primary mechanism a series of discussion sessions whose moderators and panels will reflect the field's longstanding cross-phylogenetic tradition, in which a broad array of animal systems is used to investigate both the developing and mature olfactory system. Seven discussion sessions are planned: 1) induction and specification of the olfactory periphery and bulb, 2) molecular patterning of the periphery, 3) cellular development and plasticity of the periphery, 4) olfactory receptor axon guidance and targeting, 5) construction of glomeruli, 6) behaviorally induced plasticity in the developing bulb, and 7) summary, including focus on future directions. The conference is intended mainly for members of the broad olfactory community, at all levels including trainees. Several delegates whose primary research areas lie in other sensory systems but whose interests lie in related developmental questions also will be invited.