Organized by Misha Ahrens (Janelia), Asya Rolls (Technion) and Nelson Spruston (Janelia), this is the first in a series of planning workshops that will help identify where Janelia can make the most impact with a new 15-lab, 15-year research program. 

In October, Janelia announced 4D Cellular Physiology as a new research area, complementing our first research area, Mechanistic Cognitive Neuroscience and two core areas, Molecular Tools and Imaging and Computation and Theory. 4D Cellular Physiology aims to understand the function, structure and communication mechanisms of cells within and across organ systems. We aim to develop and deploy creative new approaches that will improve our ability to study cellular function in intact tissues, in living animals.

This workshop will focus on the critical interaction of the nervous system with myriad cell types in physiological systems across the body. Coordination of homeostatic processes in animals requires communication between the body and the brain, and our goal in this meeting is to identify the most pressing questions and exciting directions pertaining to the mechanisms of bidirectional communication between neurons and other cell types and physiological systems throughout the body. 

The virtual format will include 4-5 hours of short talks and discussion each day. All talks will be open to the broad scientific community. Presentations by invited speakers will focus on current challenges in the field and exciting new directions that could lead to transformative advances. If you wish to attend any of the sessions, click the "sign up" button on this page to receive the meeting agenda and zoom link to join when they become available.

This workshop will serve an important role in shaping Janelia’s ongoing research program, providing critical background for a new approach to collaboratively tackle some of the most important problems in modern biomedical research. 

Early career researchers, including graduate students and postdocs, are invited to submit an abstract for consideration for a 10-minute talk focused on how the development of new tools and approaches in the area of brain-body communication could drive your research forward.

Applications are closed for this workshop.

Organized by Jennifer  Lippincott-Schwartz (Janelia), Michael Caplan (Yale) and Patrick Chitwood (Janelia), this is one in a series of planning workshops that will help identify where Janelia can make the most impact with a new 15-lab, 15-year research program. 

In October, Janelia announced 4D Cellular Physiology as a new research area, complementing our first research area, Mechanistic Cognitive Neuroscience and two core areas, Molecular Tools and Imaging and Computation and Theory. 4D Cellular Physiology aims to understand the function, structure and communication mechanisms of cells within and across organ systems. We aim to develop and deploy creative new approaches that will improve our ability to study cellular function in intact tissues, in living animals.

This workshop will focus on the critical physiological roles that epithelia play in forming mechanical and chemical barriers in many tissues. Differentiated cell types of each epithelial tissue and organ acquire unique structures and subcellular specializations that endow them with the capacity to perform their physiological functions. For the vast majority of epithelial cell types, the essential cellular and physiological cues that produce their exquisite architectural and biochemical tissue-specific adaptations are not fully understood. Our goal in this meeting is to identify the most pressing questions and exciting directions pertaining to the interface between epithelial cell biology and physiology throughout the body. 

The virtual format will include 4-5 hours of short talks and discussion each day. All talks will be open to the broad scientific community. Presentations by invited speakers will focus on current challenges in the field and exciting new directions that could lead to transformative advances. If you wish to attend any of the sessions, click the "sign up" button on this page to receive the meeting agenda and zoom link to join when they become available.

This workshop will serve an important role in shaping Janelia’s ongoing research program, providing critical background for a new approach to collaboratively tackle some of the most important problems in modern biomedical research. 

Early career researchers, including graduate students and postdocs, are invited to submit an abstract for consideration for a 10-minute talk focused on how the development of new tools and approaches in the area of epithelial physiology could drive your research forward. 

Applications are closed for this workshop.

 Organized by Mikala Egeblad (CSHL), Ron Vale (HHMI-Janelia) and Harold Varmus (Weill Cornell), this is the third in a series of planning workshops that will serve an important role in shaping a 15-lab, 15-year research program at Janelia Research Campus called “4D Cellular Physiology”.

4D Cellular Physiology aims to understand the function, structure and communication mechanisms of cells within and across organ systems. We hope to stimulate this emerging field by taking mechanistic cell biological approaches to important physiological questions about development, normal homeostatic function, and disease in the context of organs and tissues. Janelia is particularly strong in high-resolution light and electron microscopy approaches that probe the structure, biochemistry, and dynamic behavior of single cells in 3D tissue environments; efforts that are aided by computer scientists and theorists who help to analyze and interpret such data.

The tumor microenvironment (TME) is an excellent topic for a 4D Cellular Physiology workshop, as tumors consist of a complex, heterogeneous ecosystem of cells, the collective behavior of which influences tumor progression, spread, and response to therapeutic intervention. This meeting will focus on the most pressing questions, outstanding problems and innovative approaches to understanding the mechanisms of communication, adaptations in biochemistry, and biophysical properties of the many cell types and extracellular components that comprise the TME. We welcome everyone to help us explore the big unknown questions related to the cell biology of tumors and to identify barriers, both conceptual and technical, that must be overcome to answer those questions.

This workshop will serve an important role in shaping Janelia’s ongoing research program, providing critical background for a new approach to collaboratively tackle some of the most important problems in modern biomedical research. The virtual format will include roughly 5 hours of short talks and discussions each day.

If you wish to attend without making a presentation, sign up HERE to receive the meeting agenda and zoom link to join when they become available.

Early career researchers, including graduate students and postdocs, are invited to submit an abstract for consideration for a 10-minute talk focused on your work related to the tumor microenvironment, any challenges you face, and how the development of new tools and approaches could drive your research forward. 

Application deadline : March 17, 2021 (11:59 p.m. ET)

Apply for participation 

With the goal of improving gender diversity of life science faculty, the Leading Edge Symposium provides outstanding women and non-binary postdocs in biomedical research a platform to share their work and connect with one another, both professionally and personally. Attendees will give short research talks, participate in lively discussions and network with both junior and senior investigators. A panel of carefully selected world leaders in biomedical research will provide mentorship and career development training, and representatives from institutions interested in recruiting and supporting a diverse faculty will be invited. 

Visit leadingedgesymposium.org for more details!

Application are closed for this meeting

This meeting will focus on molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the formation of precise patterns of synaptic connectivity. Over the past decade, considerable progress has been made in uncovering the molecular identity and structure of adhesion complexes at synapses, diverse cell surface recognition molecules contributing to wiring specificity, and the role of activity in sculpting the neural circuitry. In parallel, detailed connectomics at the light microscopy and EM level have uncovered the extraordinary specificity and complexity of connectivity, and single cell sequencing has defined cell types and cell-type specific patterns of cell-surface protein expression during circuit assembly. Light microscopic techniques from super-resolution to expansion microscopy and live imaging have led to important advances in uncovering cell biological mechanisms of circuit assembly. Presentations and discussions will highlight important advances in the field and consider current challenges and future directions.

Cell polarity is a universal feature of all eukaryotic cells and involves the asymmetric organization of different cellular components to enable emergence of specialized functions. A broad range of questions still remain unanswered in this field, including cell polarity’s role in nutrient transport, cell signaling, cell division, surface expression patterns and motility. This conference will bring practitioners studying cell polarity together from different disciplines (including biophysics, cell biology, physiology and theory) to share their science and discuss unresolved questions from a multidisciplinary perspective. Participants will come away from the conference with new ideas born from different perspectives and will have established new contacts and approaches to advance identified problems in the field.