2012 International Motoneuron Society Meeting

描述(由申请人提供)：我们正在为在美国实验室工作的专业人士、博士后研究员和研究生寻求资金支持，他们计划参加定于2012年7月举行的国际运动神经元协会第8次会议。这些非常成功的国际会议的目标是将致力于动物模型运动神经元和运动单位的研究人员与那些对人类受试者进行类似研究的研究人员聚集在一起。讨论的一个主要重点是将基础科学进展转化为临床疗法。这一领域具有不同寻常的国际性，关键实验室分散在北美、欧洲和澳大利亚。因此，这些会议对于在实地保持沟通和取得进展至关重要，它们促进了一些重要的协作项目。NINDS慷慨地支持了本系列之前的几次会议(博尔德，2000；博尔德，2004；西雅图，2006和巴黎，2008)。为了促进参加会议的实验室之间的互动，每节课都包括对非专家的介绍、简短的演讲和延长的讨论时间。每堂课至少有一位博士后研究员或研究生做报告。在整个会议中，有关动物模型的细胞生理学的会议穿插着关于人类受试者的相关研究。我们还包括对高速、生物逼真计算机模拟的最新发展的讨论，这些计算机模拟可能提供一个将这两种类型的数据定量关联的平台。会议的核心问题是如何最好地将实验结果和计算机模拟相结合，以解决在正常功能(疲劳、运动)和疾病状态(脊柱损伤、偏瘫中风和肌萎缩侧索硬化症)下运动单位放电模式背后的细胞机制。我们还计划邀请一位或多位来自相关领域的专家，就运动病理学的技术(例如，光遗传学、脑机接口)和治疗方法的新发展发表主题演讲。每位受邀演讲者提交的摘要将张贴在一个公开的网站上。会议结束后，会谈和讨论的录像将上载到扩大后的网站。我们预计，这将为运动系统的研究提供新的思路和方法，并为脊髓损伤和中风的痉挛以及ALS的运动神经元变性创造新的治疗策略。) 公共卫生相关性：本申请寻求对第8届运动神经元和运动单位国际会议的支持。为期4.5天的会议将汇集研究人类运动单位正常和病理行为的专家，专家们将重点研究正常动物和那些被设计为人类运动病理模型的动物运动神经元行为的细胞机制，包括ALS、脊髓损伤、帕金森病和中风。)

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We are seeking financial support for PIs, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students working in US laboratories planning to participate in the 8th Meeting of the International Motoneuron Society scheduled for July 2012. The goal of these highly successful, international meetings is to bring investigators working on motoneurons and motor units in animal models together with those performing analogous studies on human subjects. A major emphasis of the discussions is on translating basic science advances into clinical therapies. This field is unusually international, with the key laboratories scattered throughout North America, Europe and Australia. Thus, these meetings have been essential for maintaining communication and progress in the field, and they have fostered a number of important collaborative projects. NINDS has generously supported several of the prior meetings in this series (Boulder, 2000; Boulder, 2004; Seattle, 2006 and Paris, 2008). To facilitate interactions between the participating labs at the meeting, each session consists of an introduction for non-specialists, short presentations, and extended time for discussion. Each session will have at least one presentation by a post-doctoral fellow or a graduate student. Sessions on cellular physiology from animal models are interspersed with related studies on human subjects throughout the meeting. We also include discussions of recent developments in high-speed, biologically realistic computer simulations that potentially provide a platform for quantitatively relating these two types of data. The issue at the heart of the meeting is how can the experimental results and computer simulations be best integrated to resolve the cellular mechanisms underlying motor-unit firing-patterns both in normal function (fatigue, exercise) and in disease states (spinal injury, hemiparetic stroke, and ALS). We also plan to invite one or more experts from cognate fields to provide keynote addresses on new developments in techniques (e.g., optogenetics, brain-machine interfaces) and therapeutic approaches to motor pathologies. The abstracts submitted by each invited speaker will be posted on a publicized website. Following the meeting, video recordings of the talks and discussion sessions will be uploaded to the expanded website. We anticipate that this will generate new ideas and approaches for investigation of motor system as well as creation of new therapeutic strategies for spasticity in spinal injury and stroke and motoneuron degeneration in ALS.) PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This application seeks support for the 8th International Meeting on Motoneurons and Motor Units. The 4.5 day conference will bring together specialists investigating the normal and pathological behavior of motor units in humans with specialists focusing on cellular mechanisms underlying motoneuron behavior in both normal animals and those designed as models for human motor pathologies including ALS, spinal cord injury, Parkinson's disease and stroke.)