Wiring the Brain 2011: Making Connections

描述（由申请人提供）：本次会议的主要目的是将来自传统上独立学科的科学家聚集在一起，包括发育神经生物学、精神病学和神经遗传学、分子、细胞和系统神经科学以及认知科学。主要主题是探索大脑连接是如何建立的，当潜在的过程受到干扰时，电路和网络功能会发生什么变化，以及这是如何导致精神和神经系统疾病的。召开这样一个会议，一方面是由于精神病学遗传学对神经发育相关基因的显著趋同，另一方面是由于这两个领域之间仍然存在鸿沟。正在进行的测序技术革命将产生前所未有的大量遗传数据，包括鉴定与精神或神经疾病病因有关的可能大量基因的突变。将这些数据转化为临床有用的信息将需要上述综合的多学科方法。只有深入和综合地了解多层次的致病机制，才能为预测个体风险和预后、描述治疗方法和建议合理设计新疗法提供见解。相反，研究例外情况（基因鉴定）为理解大脑的正常发育和功能提供了一条强有力的途径，就像生物学的许多其他领域一样。我们的目标不只是促进不同领域的知名研究人员之间的交流和合作，而是激励新一代的研究人员在未来的职业生涯中超越这些传统的界限。要真正理解控制神经发育过程（如细胞迁移、轴突引导和突触发生）的基因突变如何导致精神分裂症或自闭症等疾病特征的复杂症状谱，将需要在非常广泛的水平上整合知识。我们需要了解神经回路是如何建立的，它是如何在细胞水平上因关键基因的突变而变化的，细胞连接如何转化为网络功能或功能障碍，以及考虑到终身发展轨迹，这如何导致不同领域的精神症状。目前，这些不同层次的分析是独立的，通常是从完全不同的角度进行的，这取决于相关的学科传统（例如，发育生物学、生理学、心理学）。在这些边界之间建立联系需要额外的努力，这通常不是由专家会议实现的。我们希望这次会议将通过突出共同利益和增加协同研究的可能性来促进跨学科合作。因此，“建立联系”的主题既适用于科学意义，也适用于生物学意义。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The principal aim of this meeting is to bring together scientists from what have traditionally been separate disciplines, including developmental neurobiology, psychiatric and neurological genetics, molecular, cellular and systems neuroscience and cognitive science. The main theme is to explore how brain connectivity is established, what happens to circuit and network function when the underlying processes are disturbed and how this can lead to psychiatric and neurological disease. The setting up of such a meeting was driven, on the one hand, by the dramatic convergence of psychiatric genetics on genes involved in neurodevelopment and, on the other hand, by the gulf that remains between these two fields. The ongoing revolution in sequencing technology will yield unprecedented amounts of genetic data, including the identification of mutations in probably large numbers of genes involved in the etiology of psychiatric or neurological disease. Translating those data into clinically useful information will require the types of integrated, multidisciplinary approaches described above. Only a deep and integrative understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms across multiple levels will provide the insights to predict individual risk and prognosis, delineate treatment and suggest the rational design of new therapeutics. Conversely, investigating the exceptions (identified genetically) provides a powerful route to understanding normal development and function of the brain, as has been the case for so many other areas of biology. We aim not just to promote cross-talk and collaborations between established researchers in distinct fields but to inspire a new generation of researchers to transcend those traditional boundaries in their future careers. To truly understand how mutations in genes controlling neurodevelopmental processes such as cell migration, axon guidance and synaptogenesis can result in the complicated spectrum of symptoms that characterize disorders such as schizophrenia or autism will require an integration of knowledge across a very wide range of levels. We will need to understand how neural circuitry is established, how it varies on the cellular level due to mutations in key genes, how the cellular connectivity translates into network function or dysfunction and how this results in psychiatric symptoms in various domains, taking lifelong developmental trajectories into account. Currently, these different levels of analysis are addressed independently and typically from quite different angles depending on the associated disciplinary tradition (e.g., developmental biology, physiology, psychology). Making links across these boundaries requires extra effort and is typically not achieved by specialist conferences. We hope this conference will stimulate interdisciplinary collaborations by highlighting common interests and the increasing possibilities for synergistic research. The theme of "Making Connections" thus applies in a scientific as well as a biological sense. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The meeting "Wiring the Brain - Making Connections" will bring together researchers from developmental neurobiology, psychiatric genetics, molecular, cellular and systems neuroscience and cognitive science to explore how brain connectivity is established, what happens to circuit and network function when the underlying processes go wrong and how this can lead to psychiatric and neurological disease. Disclaimer: Please note that the following critiques were prepared by the reviewers prior to the Study Section meeting and are provided in an essentially unedited form. While there is opportunity for the reviewers to update or revise their written evaluation, based upon the group's discussion, there is no guarantee that individual critiques have been updated subsequent to the discussion at the meeting. Therefore, the critiques may not fully reflect the final opinions of the individual reviewers at the close of group discussion or the final majority opinion of the group. Thus the Resume and Summary of Discussion is the final word on what the reviewers actually considered critical at the meeting.