NEUROBIOLOGY OF DROSOPHILA
September 29 - October 3, 2015
Abstract Deadline: July 10, 2015

Organizers:
Aaron DiAntonio, Washington University School of Medicine           Diane O'Dowd, University of California, Irvine

We are pleased to announce the sixteenth biennial Neurobiology of Drosophila meeting, which will be held at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The meeting will begin at 7:30 pm on the evening of Tuesday, September 29, and will conclude after lunch on Saturday, October 3.

The goals of this conference are to provide a forum for the presentation of late breaking advances in Drosophila neurobiology, to exchange ideas and techniques, to stimulate future research and collaborations, and to recognize and encourage younger investigators and women working in this field. We strongly encourage all participants to submit an abstract(s) of your most recent work for consideration as an oral or poster presentation. In the event of the meeting being oversubscribed, preference to attend will go to those submitting abstracts. The organizers will endeavor to accept for participation at least one representative of every applicant laboratory either engaged in or about to embark on Drosophila neurobiological research. We particularly encourage active participation by younger investigators and minority scientists.

Seymour Benzer Keynote Lecture:
Leslie Griffith, Brandeis University
 
Sessions Include:
Brain, Behavior and Evolution
Mark Wu,
Johns Hopkins University

Sensory Systems
Todd Holmes, University of California, Irvine

Neural Development
Heather Broihier, Case Western Reserve University

Synaptic Transmission and Plasticity
Robin Hiesinger, UT Southwestern

Mechanisms of Neurological Disease
Ming Guo,
University of California, Los Angeles

Glial Biology
Rob Jackson, Tufts University

Neural Circuits and Higher Order Nervous System Function
Kristin Scott,
University of California, Berkeley


Workshops: A major innovation for the 2015 conference is the addition of breakout workshop sessions. These focused workshops will be dominated by participatory activities and will cover topics of interest to Drosophilia neurobiologists at all career stages. This format will facilitate interactions among conference participants. CSH has the facilities to accommodate multiple concurrent breakout sessions for 30-80 people/session. Workshop topics will include:

1. The role of Drosophilia in the NIH BRAIN initiative (Organized by Julie Simpson & Ben White)

2. Crosstalk between peripheral metabolism and the brain (Organized by Monica Dus & Greg Suh)

3. Technological innovations (Organized by Karla Kaun, Chi-hon Lee, & Kate O'Connor-Giles)

4. The Humble PhD: Avoid Common Career Mistakes by Accepting Your Circumstances and Adapting (Organized by Thomas Magaldi, designed for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows)

5. Communicating Science (Organized by The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science)


New in 2015! This year's meeting will include a screening of The Fly Room, a film about Calvin Bridges, his daughter Betsey, and their relationship while he worked in the Fly Room laboratory at Columbia University in the early 20th century.

Abstracts should contain only new and unpublished material and must be submitted electronically by the abstract deadline. Selection of material for oral and poster presentation will be made by the organizers and individual session chairs. Status (talk/poster) of abstracts will be posted on our web site as soon as decisions have been made by the organizers.

We are eager to have as many young people as possible attend since they are likely to benefit most from this meeting. We have applied for funds from government and industry to partially support graduate students and postdocs. Apply in writing to Demetria Mudar (dmudar@cshl.edu) stating need for financial support - preference is given to those submitting abstracts.

We look forward to seeing you at Cold Spring Harbor in September/October.

Nominate your student(s) for the 2015 Elkins Memorial Lecture Award - Graduate students working in any area of Drosophila neurobiology are eligible. Suitable candidates should be nominated by their thesis advisor on the basis of work that was carried out or completed since the last Cold Spring Harbor meeting in October 2013. The nomination letter outlining the qualifications of the candidate and the significance of the research, a C.V. and PDFs of relevant reprints or manuscripts should be submitted electronically to kolodkin@jhmi.edu by July 19, 2015.

Partial support will provided by the National Institutes of Health.


Pricing
Academic Package $1425
Graduate/PhD Student Package $1185
Corporate Package $1835
Academic/Student No-Housing Package $965

Corporate No-Housing Package $1230

Regular packages are all-inclusive and cover registration, food, housing, parking, a wine-and-cheese party, cocktail reception, and lobster banquet. No-Housing packages include all costs except housing. Full payment is due four weeks prior to the meeting.

We have funds to provide partial scholarships for individuals who are US citizens/permanent residents from minority groups under-represented in the life sciences. Please provide justification in writing to Demetria Mudar and state your financial needs. Preference will be given to those applying who submit abstracts to the meeting.