Conference: 4th NeuroNex Investigator Meeting: Beyond Neurons

国家科学基金会NeuroNex网络是一个研究团队社区，致力于发明和应用神经科学的基本问题，包括各种工具、技术、软件、动物模型、行为和计算分析、硬件开发、系统生物学以及许多其他生物学和理论研究领域。NeuroNex的研究人员定期开会，提供他们的最新进展，收集对实验和结果的反馈，并就及时的科学主题和团队科学实践分享想法。这些会议是NeuroNex研究人员与其他研究人员建立网络并形成新的合作和调查路线的宝贵机会，只有在跨学科专业知识以及共享的努力和资源的情况下才能实现这些合作和调查路线。本次NeuroNex研究人员会议的主题是“超越神经元”，旨在激发创造力，并为NeuroNex研究的未来产生想法。通过一系列循序渐进的互动研讨会，NeuroNex的研究人员被鼓励考虑如何将他们的进步应用于其他NeuroNex小组面临的挑战，应用于神经元以外的细胞类型，应用于生物学之外的努力，以及它们如何在科学研究之外对社会产生影响。通过这一过程产生的想法将确定新出现的主题并启发未来的研究方向。NeuroNex实习生(本科生和研究生以及博士后研究人员)是这些会议的主要参与者，他们有机会通过海报会议介绍他们的工作，目前和未来可能参加的国家和国际同事和导师以及资助机构官员都参加了会议。NeuroNex社区在各种研究领域取得了有价值的进展。NeuroNex调查员会议为研究人员提供了一个机会，向他们的同事通报他们的最新进展，并激励他们提出问题并寻求答案，这些问题需要新的模型、技术、工具发明和开发、计算和其他研究途径，而这些只有通过与其他研究人员的合作才能实现。会议日程包括与会者与同事交流的时间、允许每个小组介绍他们的NeuroNex项目概述和学员分享他们的研究结果的海报会议、来自NeuroNex网络外部的科学家的两次演讲，他们的工作与会议的主题特别相关，以及几次研讨会会议，重点是这次NeuroNex调查人员会议的主题--“超越神经元”。选择这个主题是为了挑战NeuroNex的研究人员，考虑他们如何将他们的发现、模型、工具和其他进展应用于“超越你的板凳”、“超越神经元”、“进入生物经济”和“超越生物学”中的研究问题。通过一系列讲习班，研究人员审议了每一种具有更广泛影响的途径，并与同事小组一起，确定了最有趣的潜在未来方向以及追求这些途径面临的当前挑战。每个分组产生的想法有助于会议集体确定未来研究的紧急主题和优先事项。NeuroNex社区成员之间的会后讨论将完善会议期间制定的愿景。会议的一个直接、切实的成果是一份总结会议期间制定的主题和优先事项的白皮书。该白皮书将通过公共的neronex.org网站广泛访问。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The National Science Foundation NeuroNex network is a community of research teams that work on the leading edge of inventing and applying to foundational question in neuroscience diverse tools, techniques, software, animal models, behavioral and computational analysis, hardware development, systems biology, and many other areas of biological and theoretical research. NeuroNex investigators meet periodically to provide updates on their progress, collect feedback on experiments and results, and share ideas on timely topics in science and the practice of team science. These meetings are invaluable opportunities for NeuroNex investigators to network with other researchers and to form new collaborations and lines of inquiry that are possible only with interdisciplinary expertise and shared effort and resources. The theme of this NeuroNex Investigator Meeting, “Beyond Neurons,” is designed to stimulate creativity and generate ideas for the future of NeuroNex research. Through a series of progressive, interactive workshops, NeuroNex researchers are encouraged to consider how their advancements can be applied to challenges faced by other NeuroNex groups, to cell types other than neurons, to efforts beyond biology, and how they can impact on society beyond scientific research. The ideas generated through this process will identify emergent themes and inspire future research directions. NeuroNex trainees (undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers) are key participants in these meetings and have the opportunity to present their work via a Poster Session attended by present and potential future national and internatinonal colleagues and mentors, and funding agency officials. The NeuroNex community has created valuable advancements in a variety of research areas. NeuroNex Investigator Meetings provide an opportunity for researchers to update their colleagues on their progress and to inspire them to ask and pursue answers to questions that require new models, techniques, tool invention and development, computation, and other paths of inquiry that are only possible through collaboration with other researchers. The meeting schedule includes time for participants to network with colleagues, a Poster Session that allows each group to present an overview of their NeuroNex project and for trainees to share their research results, two talks from scientists external to the NeuroNex network whose work is especially relevant to the theme of the meeting and several workshop sessions focused on the theme of this NeuroNex Investigator Meeting, “Beyond Neurons.” This theme was chosen to challenge NeuroNex investigators to consider how they can apply their findings, models, tools, and other advancements to research questions in “Beyond Your Bench,” “Beyond Neurons,” “Into the Bioeconomy” and “Beyond Biology.” Through a series of Workshops, researchers consider each of these avenues of broader impact and, with subgroups of colleagues, identify the most interesting potential future directions as well as current challenges to pursuing those avenues. Ideas generated by each subgroup contribute to the meeting’s exercise of collectively identifying emergent themes and priorities for future research. Post-meeting discussions among members of the NeuroNex community will refine the visioning developed during the meeting. A direct, tangible outcome of the meeting is a White Paper summarizing the themes and priorities developed during the meeting. the White Paper will be broadly accessible through the public neuronex.org website.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.