2010 "Synaptic Transmission" Gordon Research Conference

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal requests partial support for an international meeting on Synaptic Transmission as part of the Gordon Research Conference series to be held at the University of New England Campus on the US Atlantic coast in Biddeford, Maine during the week of July 25-30, 2010. The broad and long term goal of the conference is to increase our understanding of the fundamental molecular and cellular mechanisms of synaptic transmission. The synapse serves as the basic signaling unit of the nervous system. Synaptic transmission underlies every aspect of brain function and is relevant to most neurological diseases, as well as mental illness and drug addiction. The specific aims of this meeting will be to convene 34 speakers that represent critical areas of synaptic transmission research with a total of 140 participants for a five day conference in a relatively isolated setting. The program will have two keynote lectures and eight sessions that broadly address current issues in transmitter release, postsynaptic signaling and receptor trafficking, short- and long-term plasticity, trans-synaptic signaling, synaptic integration and circuits, local protein synthesis and synaptic function, and a session devoted to the synaptic basis of brain disorders. In addition, two evening poster sessions will permit all participants to contribute to these topics. The significance of this application is that the Gordon Research Conference on Synaptic Transmission is a critical component of the yearly series of conferences that propel research in the international community of "synaptologists". The health relatedness of this application is that the discussions will define the questions that require experimental resolution of a wide range of devastating brain disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases, schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders, drug addiction, mood disorders and many others, which can collectively be regarded as synaptopathies. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: How we think, feel, act and learn, all rely on a process known as synaptic transmission, namely, the information transfer between nerve cells. The health relatedness of this application is that the discussions of current research in synaptic transmission will define the questions that require experimental resolution in areas that affect a wide range of devastating brain disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, mood disorders, autism spectrum disorders, mental retardation and drug addiction. These discussions will focus researchers identifying the mechanisms of synaptic transmission under normal and disease states, and developing therapies based on these mechanisms.