American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This R13 application seeks funding to support travel awards for students and postdoctoral fellows to attend the annual meeting of the American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair (ASNTR) 2009. 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 postdoctoral fellows not only learn the basic sciences, they also learn translational issues discussed between 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 and Training Committee encourages students/postdoctoral fellows 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. This application requests $20,000 in total direct costs to support travel awards for the top 20 graduate students/postdoctoral fellows from US institutions that apply (awards of $1000 per student/postdoc). ASNTR and the Education and Training Committee includes and encourages participation of women, minorities and persons with disabilities in all its activities. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This application seeks funding for travel awards for graduate students and postdocs to attend 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.