Support for a Workshop on Circuits of the Circadian System

描述(由申请者提供)：大约50名初级和高级研究人员将聚集在一个正式名称为“组装多细胞昼夜节律起搏器：在无脊椎动物和脊椎动物大脑中寻找神经回路组织原理”的研讨会上，其临时标题为“昼夜节律系统回路”。这次研讨会是对昼夜节律研究领域中几个新兴主题的必要回应。一方面，在鉴定构成昼夜节律计时基础的分子钟表方面已经取得了很大进展。另一方面，稳定的昼夜节律性被认为是通过相互连接的神经元系统表达的时钟的产物，该系统控制着调节行为和生理事件的传出信号的时间。在感官方面，以光感受器为重点，周期性的环境刺激为昼夜节律系统提供同步输入。在中央生物钟内，神经系统的各个组成部分正在被检测和选择性地评估。其中许多成分在昆虫(最著名的是黑腹果蝇)中的解剖学和功能上都是已知的。相比之下，哺乳动物生物钟中关于单个细胞类型的信息很少，特别是关于它们的连接和细胞-细胞信号，据推测，细胞-细胞信号可能控制着影响身体事件时间的时间信息的编码。拟议的讲习班将在荷兰莱顿大学洛伦茨中心举行。它将把研究昆虫或哺乳动物的国际公认的高级教员聚集在一起，与更多初级教员、博士后或学生在一个亲密的论坛上交流，生动地介绍和讨论数据、想法和原理。讲习班的参加者人数和工作重点相对较窄，预计将促进信息的流动。讲习班的目标是建立一种关于多细胞生理系统的已知情况的场在哪里的感觉。无论是在默认情况下，还是在设计上，这都将表明缺乏什么样的信息，以及未来应该把研究重点放在哪里。讲习班将以多作者综述的形式产生一份产品，总结关于生物钟系统的已知情况。它还将提供对未来研究目标的认识，这可能为调查人员和监督机构提供有用的指导。 与公共健康相关：昼夜节律系统控制着几乎所有行为和生理事件的时间。因此，它是所有生命形式的组织原则。了解昼夜节律系统如何接收感觉信息，产生振荡输出，并将输出传递到大脑和身体其他地方的目标系统，对于理解正常的动物和人类健康至关重要。拟举办的昼夜节律系统电路研讨会将召集现有的、新的和仍在兴起的科学家研究昼夜节律系统的电路，以确定对其组织的了解的深度，以及对科学的无知在多大程度上阻碍了对其的理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Approximately 50 junior and senior investigators will convene in a Workshop formally titled, "Assembling a Multi-Cellular Circadian Pacemaker: Seeking Principles of Neural Circuit Organization Across Invertebrate and Vertebrate Brains," with a working title of "Circadian System Circuits." This Workshop is a necessary response to several emerging themes in the field of circadian rhythm research. On the one hand, great strides have been made with respect to identification of the molecular clockworks which form the foundation of circadian timekeeping. On the other, stable circadian rhythmicity is recognized as a product of the clockworks being expressed through a system of interconnected neurons which govern the timing of efferent signals that regulate behavioral and physiological events. On the sensory side, with emphasis on photoreceptors, periodic environmental stimuli provide synchronizing input to the circadian system. Within the central circadian clock, individual components of the neuronal system are being detected and selectively evaluated. Many of these components are known anatomically and functionally in insects (most notably, Drosophila melanogaster). In contrast, there is a paucity of information about individual cell types in the mammalian clock, particularly with respect to their connections and the cell-cell signaling that presumably governs the coding of temporal information affecting timing of bodily events. The proposed Workshop is to be held in the Lorentz Center, Leiden University, The Netherlands. It will bring together internationally recognized senior faculty who study insects or mammals to mix with more junior faculty, post docs or students in an intimate forum for lively presentation and discussion of data, ideas and principles. The number of participants and the relatively narrow focus of the Workshop is expected to facilitate the flow of information. The goal of the Workshop is to create a sense of where the field is with respect to what is known about the multicellular circadian system. This will, both by default and design, demonstrate what kind of information is lacking and where research emphasis should be placed in the future. The Workshop will generate a product, in the form of a multi-author review that will summarize what is known about the circadian system. It will also provide a sense of future research goals that may provide useful guidance of investigators and oversight agencies. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The circadian rhythm system governs the timing of virtually all behavioral and physiological events. As such, it is an organizing principle in all life forms. An understanding of how the circadian system receives sensory information, generates an oscillatory output and conveys that output to target systems elsewhere in the brain and body is essential to the understanding of normal animal and human health. The proposed Workshop on Circuits of the Circadian System will gather established, new and still emerging scientists to examine the circadian system circuitry in order to determine the depth of knowledge about its organization and the extent to which scientific ignorance obstructs its understanding.