ASNTR Annual Meeting Student Travel Awards

描述（由申请人提供）：本R13申请为美国神经治疗与修复学会（ASNTR） 2008年年会寻求资金。自1994年成立以来，ASNTR每年4月/ 5月在佛罗里达州克利尔沃特召开一次会议。在会议上，通过平台和海报展示讨论了移植、神经工程和基因治疗领域应用于帕金森病、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的各种研究进展。ASNTR在其所有会议中都侧重于治疗策略。因此，学生和博士后不仅学习基础科学，他们还学习基础科学家和临床医生讨论的转化问题。因此，ASNTR确实是一次独特的聚会。出席本次会议的人数在125-200人之间。每年，ASNTR教育委员会都会鼓励学生/博士后在竞赛中提交他们的摘要，排名靠前的申请人将获得旅行奖励，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。在过去，ASNTR收到了来自生物技术公司和非营利组织的捐款来支付这些旅行奖励，然而，近年来，ASNTR看到这些捐款减少了，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比最近的水平有所增加。因此，NIH对这项活动的资助至关重要。为了鼓励年轻科学家寻求和获得独立的同行评审资助，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个非常受欢迎的短期资助课程。该申请要求总直接费用为20,000美元，用于支持来自申请美国机构的前20名研究生/博士后的旅行奖励（每名学生/博士后奖励1000美元）和5000美元用于支持短期资助课程。美国国立卫生研究院对这次旅行奖和短期资助课程的资助对于继续这项活动之前的资助所创造的势头和鼓励年轻的研究者进入这个新兴的转化神经科学领域至关重要。残疾人协会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。公共卫生相关性：本申请为美国神经治疗与修复学会年会寻求资金支持。这次会议将使致力于发现神经系统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。这次会议将有可能促成新的研究合作，从而改善治疗方法。

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.