ASNTR Annual Meeting Student Travel Awards

描述(由申请人提供)：此R13申请为美国神经治疗与修复学会(ASNTR)2008年年会寻求资金。ASNTR自1994年成立以来，每年4月/5月在佛罗里达州克利尔沃特召开会议。会上通过平台和海报演示讨论了移植、神经工程和基因疗法应用于帕金森氏病、亨廷顿病、阿尔茨海默病、中风、脊髓损伤和创伤性脑损伤等神经系统疾病领域的各种研究进展。ASNTR在其所有会议上都侧重于治疗战略。因此，学生和博士后不仅学习基础科学，还学习基础科学家和临床医生讨论的翻译问题。因此，ASNTR确实是一次独特的聚会。本次会议的参会者从125人到200人不等。每年，ASNTR教育委员会鼓励学生/博士后在比赛中提交摘要，排名最高的申请者将获得旅行奖励，以支付他们参加会议和旅行的费用。ASNTR一直高度重视资助学生和博士后研究员的旅行奖励。ASNTR过去曾收到生物技术公司和非营利组织的捐款，用于支付这些旅行奖项，然而，ASNTR近年来看到这些捐款有所减少，尽管ASNTR将继续从私营部门寻求资金，但我们预计未来几年的捐款不会超过最近的水平。因此，NIH为这项活动提供资金是至关重要的。为了鼓励年轻科学家寻求和获得独立同行评审的资助，我们每隔2-3年在ASNTR年会期间为旅行奖获得者和学生举办一次非常受欢迎的短期资助学课程。这项申请要求20,000美元的直接总成本，以支持申请的美国院校前20名研究生/博士后的旅行奖励(每名学生/博士后1000美元的奖励)，以及5000美元的支持短期资助学课程。NIH为这一旅行奖项和短期授勋课程提供的资金对于延续之前对这一活动的资助所创造的势头以及鼓励年轻研究人员进入这一新兴的翻译神经科学领域至关重要。ASNTR及其教育委员会包括并鼓励包括妇女和残疾人在内的少数群体参与其所有活动。与公共健康相关：该申请旨在为美国神经治疗与修复学会的年度会议募集资金。这次会议将允许致力于发现神经疾病新疗法的年轻和资深科学家和医生聚集在一起，讨论他们的新研究成果。这次会议可能会允许进行新的研究合作，从而可能导致治疗方法的改进。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This R13 application seeks funding for the annual meeting of the American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair (ASNTR) 2008. Since its founding in 1994, the ASNTR has convened yearly each April/May in Clearwater, Florida. At the meeting various research advances in the fields of transplantation, neuroengineering and gene therapy applied to neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury are discussed via platform and poster presentations. ASNTR focuses on treatment strategies throughout all its sessions. Thus, students and postdocs not only learn the basic sciences, they also learn translational issues discussed by basic scientists and clinicians. Therefore, ASNTR is truly a unique gathering. Attendance of this meeting ranges between 125-200 registrants. Each year the ASNTR Education Committee encourages students/postdocs to submit their abstracts in a competition and the top rated applicants receive travel awards to cover the cost of their meeting attendance and travel. ASNTR has always placed a high priority on funding travel awards for students and post-doctoral fellows. In the past ASNTR has received donations from biotech companies and non-profit organizations to cover these travel awards, However, in recent years ASNTR has seen these contributions dwindle and although ASNTR will continue to seek funding from the private sector, we do not anticipate any increase in contributions above recent levels in the coming years. Therefore NIH funding for this activity is critical. As an incentive to encourage young scientists to seek and obtain independent peer reviewed funding, we conduct a very popular short grantsmanship course every 2-3 years surrounding the ASNTR annual meeting for the travel award winners and students. This application requests $20,000 in total direct costs to support travel awards for the top 20 graduate students/postdocs from US institutions that apply (awards of $1000 per student/postdoc) and $5000 to support the short grantsmanship course. NIH funding for this travel award and short grantsmanship course is crucial to continue the momentum created by previous funding of this activity and to encourage young investigators into this fledgling field of translational neuroscience. ASNTR and its educational committee includes and encourages participation of minorities including women and persons with disabilities in all its activities. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This application seeks funding to for the annual meeting of the American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair. This meeting will allow young and senior scientists and doctors working to discover new treatments for neurological disorders to come together and discuss their new research findings. This meeting will potentially allow new research collaborations to occur that could lead to improved treatments.