Cellular polarity involves the asymmetric organization of different cellular components to enable specialized functions. An ancient feature of all eukaryotic cells, polarity is essential for the formation of tissues and organs. A broad range of challenges regarding cell polarity include basic mechanisms, regulation, and role in nutrient transport, as well as cellular signaling, division, surface expression patterns and motility. Inheritable and acquired polarity defects have been described in many human and animal diseases, including cancer. This conference will bring together researchers from various disciplines in the field of cell polarity, including biophysics, cell biology, physiology, theory, genetics, and pathobiology, to share their science and discuss unresolved questions. We aim for participants to come away with new ideas born from different perspectives and new collaborations to advance their research.

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 2pm ET on the last.

Applications are closed.

Please note: Because Janelia conferences are intentionally small and selective, we may not be able to accommodate all applicants. We strive for as broad a representation across labs as possible 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.

Developmental programs within neural stem cells and their lineages program identity, connectivity, and function of individual neuron types, and we believe that understanding circuit development will reveal the organization of information flow in the nervous system that shapes behavior. Testing this hypothesis spans disciplines from developmental biology to behavioral neuroscience and requires diverse expertise, from molecular biology to imaging to mathematical modeling. Over the course of this meeting, we will address three broad challenges: 1) how lineage-derived information shapes circuits and connectivity patterns for innate and learned behaviors, 2) how endocrine and paracrine developmental signaling coordinate developmental transitions and sex differentiation events across the brain to produce juvenile and adult behaviors from the same genome, and 3) the development of unprecedented, evolutionarily relevant circuit engineering approaches and design of new computational modalities in living brains. We look forward to a uniquely transformative gathering of researchers working at the intersection of development and behavior to illuminate how developmental mechanisms shape complex behaviors.

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.

Applications are closed.

Please note: Because Janelia conferences are intentionally small and selective, we may not be able to accommodate all applicants. We strive for as broad a representation across labs as possible 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.

To survive, animals must decide what and how much to eat. This requires integration of external information (sights, smells, tastes, textures) with internal bodily signals. Until recently, fields focused on the sensation, perception, and interpretation of external stimuli, and their ability to regulate behavior, have proceeded largely independently from those seeking to understand internal drivers of behavior. We are excited to convene experts in diverse areas of sensory biology related to eating (taste, olfaction, gut-brain signals, etc.) across various model systems with the aim of highlighting recent discoveries, bridging these fields, and fostering a multidisciplinary science of ingestion that integrates research on interoceptive and exterosensory signals.

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.

Applications are closed.

Please note: Because Janelia conferences are intentionally small and selective, we may not be able to accommodate all applicants. We strive for as broad a representation across labs as possible 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.

Enteric nervous systems can be found in organisms lacking a discernable brain, leading to speculation that the enteric nervous system is, in fact, an evolutionary innovation predating the CNS. Despite striking features, there are marked gaps in understanding the cellular composition of enteric nervous systems, the terminal differentiation of enteric neurons, their assembly into functional circuitry, their plasticity, and their interaction with other organs and the environment. This conference brings together a diverse set of nascent and established experts addressing these questions, using a combination of approaches in a variety of systems (jellyfish, worms, flies, fish, mice and humans). Topics will include the cellular and functional diversity of enteric neurons, the genetic programs that instruct their terminal identities, and their integration into functional circuitry. We will discuss how enteric neurons not only control gut function, but how they also receive and send signals to other parts of the body, namely the immune system, and their interactions with the microbiome. By considering enteric nervous systems in a wide variety of invertebrate and vertebrate species, we look forward to conversations about core conserved features and their evolutionary history. In bringing together field experts, we aim to foster a sense of community, promote collaborations and cross-fertilize experimental approaches.

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.

Applications are closed.

Please note: Because Janelia conferences are intentionally small and selective, we may not be able to accommodate all applicants. We strive for as broad a representation across labs as possible 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.

The establishment of methods for genome manipulation and transgenesis can be challenging in emerging model systems. This meeting will convene researchers working in non-traditional organisms to share obstacles, successes, and new technologies in the development of new genetic tools, while highlighting the rich biology emerging from these systems. Invited speakers have been chosen to represent a broad taxonomic spectrum of organisms and biological problems. Talks and discussions will facilitate an exchange of resources and identify key areas to improve genetic manipulation and the delivery of transgenes.

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.

To be considered, applicants must answer a few short questions about their model system and provide a brief research abstract.

Applications are closed.

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.

Those interested in onsite participation must apply online and be willing to present a short talk or poster. Remote viewing of talks will also be available - sign up below to stay updated.

This meeting will gather current and future leaders in cellular physiology and AI for a deep discussion at this inflection point of both fields. What problems are ripe for this emerging intersection of AI and cellular physiology? Where are the challenges? We will hear about current efforts in AI-based technologies for unravelling spatial and functional organizations of genomes and dynamic cell architectures. We will reflect upon pragmatic issues of generating sufficient and reliable datasets that are amenable to AI. In addition to learning about technological AI innovations to drive new types of data generation and biological analysis, we will discuss what advances in AI may be needed to address cell biological questions. We anticipate that this timely meeting will stimulate new ideas, promote explorations, and catalyze new collaborations among the multidisciplinary group of attendees.

Janelia will cover lodging and meals for all onsite participants, and travel support is available to those in need (please indicate need in your 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.

Applications closed

This conference will also offer remote viewing of talks. Sign up for updates, including a detailed schedule and Zoom link when they become available. Remote viewers do not need to apply or submit an abstract. Be sure to add this event to your calendar.

Please note: Because Janelia conferences are intentionally small and selective, we may not be able to accommodate all applicants. We strive for as broad a representation across labs as possible 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.

Experimental and computational advances are transforming the field of cognitive neuroscience. Sophisticated quantitative behavioral paradigms and analysis have exposed the cognitive capacity of non-human animals, from mammals and small vertebrates to insects. Dramatic improvements in techniques to selectively monitor the dynamics of large cell populations and to perform precise perturbations during complex, flexible behaviors are making it possible to study cognitive computations at the level of multiple brain regions and, in some systems, across the whole brain.

An increasing ability to selectively access and molecularly characterize specific cell types across the brain, combined with advances in light- and electron-microscopy-based connectomics, have helped to reveal the circuit, cellular, synaptic, and molecular components of these computations. Advances in the throughput and computational analyses of these experiments, aided in part by machine learning, are making it possible to close the loop between theory and experiment with increasing speed, significantly accelerating the field’s march toward a mechanistic understanding of cognition.

This conference will bring together researchers who are making important biological, technical, and theoretical contributions to this effort with the goal of identifying emerging principles of cognition and discussing fruitful approaches to still more conceptual and implementation-level insights. Session formats will be designed to either highlight progress along key directions or discuss challenges and opportunities of distinct approaches.

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.

The meeting will begin at 6pm ET on the first day and end by 6pm ET on the last.

Applications are closed.

Because Janelia conferences are intentionally small and selective, we may not be able to accommodate all applicants. We strive for as broad a representation across labs as possible 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.

Connectomics is now a mature field, producing a wealth of data, from connectomes of neural circuits to connectomes of the entire nervous system of small animals. There is an urgent need for modeling and analysis methods to derive insights into brain function from these structural measurements of neural connectivity. This conference is focused on the modeling and analysis of connectomes. Examples include (a) using the connectome to propose how a biological computation works, or determine if a proposed mechanism is plausible; (b) using the connectome plus analysis to determine currently inaccessible parameters, such as learning rates and synapse strengths; (c) improved analysis, modeling, and/or simulation techniques for existing connectomes; (d) analysis techniques for future more comprehensive connectomes, such as those including gap junctions, neuromodulators and cellular machinery; and finally (e) any other results related to the analysis of connectomes.

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: Dec 3, 2024 (11:59 p.m. 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.