Understanding Head Development: A Segmental Groundplan of Vertebrates

描述（由申请人提供）：从事脊椎动物发育和遗传学研究的科学家很少与比较生物学家群体互动。拟议会议的主要目标是将这些小组聚集在一起，特别关注头部的结构，以促进可能开辟跨学科研究新途径的互动和交流。研讨会及相关活动（投稿论文和海报会议）将于2008年1月在德克萨斯州圣安东尼奥举行的综合与比较生物学学会（SICB）年会上举行，为期两天。研讨会涵盖了与脊椎动物头部相关的广泛主题，包括胚胎学、发育遗传学和比较解剖学。这12位受邀演讲者包括一些研究人员，他们利用新获得的某些原始脊椎动物物种的胚胎、基因组序列和成像技术来了解头部结构和功能的基本方面。所有这些人都是因为他们对比较生物学感兴趣而被选中的。演讲者包括许多初级研究人员，鼓励研究生和博士后参加并展示海报。研讨会论文将作为《综合与比较生物学》杂志的特刊发表。这将是重要的第一步，使在模型物种中产生的大量发育和遗传信息可用于比较群落，以及教育发育遗传学家和胚胎学家在非模型物种的丰富比较信息中指出头部的部分基础计划。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Scientists working on the development and genetics of vertebrates have very few interactions with the community of comparative biologists. The major goal of the proposed meeting is to bring these groups together, with a specific focus on the structure of the head, to foster interactions and exchanges that may open up new avenues of interdisciplinary research. The symposium and associated activities (contributed paper and poster sessions) will take place over two days at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) in Jan 2008 in San Antonio, TX. The symposium covers a broad range of topics associated with the vertebrate head, including embryology, developmental genetics, and comparative anatomy. The twelve invited speakers include researchers using newly available embryos of certain primitive vertebrate species, genome sequences, and imaging technology to understand fundamental aspects of head structure and function. All of these have been chosen for their interest in comparative biology. The selection of speakers includes many junior investigators, and both graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will be encouraged to attend and present posters. Symposium papers will be published as special issue of the Journal of Integrative and Comparative Biology. This will be an important first step in making the vast amount of developmental and genetic information generated in model species accessible to the comparative community, as well as educating developmental geneticists and embryologists in the wealth of comparative information in non-model species pointing to a segmental ground plan for the head.