Cell Communication Across Time Scales
Cells, the fundamental units of life, constantly exchange information with their neighbors and the extracellular environment to guide decisions. These communications are essential to how organisms are built, sustained, and ultimately evolve. Communication occurs through diverse mechanisms—from molecular signaling and gap junctions to symbiotic relationships—spanning milliseconds to evolutionary time scales.
This conference will bring together leading experts in molecular, cell, developmental, evolutionary, and computational biology to explore how cell communication shapes cell behavior, drives tissue morphogenesis and development, contributes to emergent properties and biological diversity, adapts with age, and supports regeneration. These across-scale discussions among participants will bridge experimental, theoretical, and computational perspectives. We aim to foster new collaborations and conceptual frameworks that connect fast intracellular dynamics to long-term ecological and evolutionary processes – as well as to stimulate methodological innovation and build community.
The intimate nature of Janelia meetings fosters an interactive and collaborative environment, with researchers across disciplines coming together for an intense, focused, 3-day gathering to tackle some of the most outstanding questions in mammalian development.
Janelia will cover lodging and meals for all participants, and travel support is available to those in need (please indicate need in that portion of the application). Participants are expected to stay for the duration of the meeting.
The meeting will begin at 6pm ET on the first day and end by 1pm ET on the last.
Application deadline: June 11, 2026 (11:59pm ET).
Please note: Because Janelia conferences are intentionally small and selective, we may not be able to accommodate all applicants. We strive for a broad representation across labs and therefore may limit participation to one person per group. Preference is given to applicants who are active researchers in the field and intend to present their work as a poster or selected talk.
Organizers
Meng Wang, HHMI/Janelia Research Campus
Shaohe Wang, HHMI/Janelia Research Campus
Invited Participants
Hugo Bellen, Baylor College of Medicine
Eric Betzig, HHMI/University of California, Berkeley
Kıvanç Birsoy, Rockefeller University
James Briscoe, Francis Crick Institute
Anne Brunet, Stanford University
Lionel Christiaen, University of Bergen
Andrew Dillin, University of California, Berkeley
Elaine Fuchs, HHMI/Rockefeller University
Zev Gartner, University of California, San Francisco
Margaret Goodell, Baylor College of Medicine
Shuo Han, Duke University
Adrian Jacobo, Biohub
Zheng Kuang, Carnegie Mellon University
Pulin Li, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Prisca Liberali, Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research
Jian Ma, Carnegie Mellon University
Harmit Malik, HHMI/Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Jodi Nunnari, Altos Labs
Duojia Pan, HHMI/University of Texas Southwestern
Linda Partridge, University College London
Norbert Perrimon, HHMI/Harvard University
Thomas Rando, University of California, Los Angeles
William Ratcliff, Georgia Institute of Technology
Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Stowers Institute
Fiona Watt, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)
Jin Zhang, University of California San Diego
Yixian Zheng, Carnegie Institution for Science
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Application deadline: June 11, 2026 (11:59pm ET)