Barrels XXXII meeting report: whiskers in the windy city

Abstract

The 32nd Annual Barrels meeting was hosted at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois on October 17th and 18th, 2019. The annual meeting brings together researchers who utilize the rodent whisker-to-barrel system as a means to understand cortical function and development. This year’s meeting focussed on social behaviours, development and cerebellar functions within the barrel system and beyond.     

Barrels XXVIII take the Windy City by storm

The 28th annual Barrels meeting was held prior to the Society for Neuroscience meeting in October 2015 at the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, Illinois. The meeting brought together researchers focused on the rodent sensorimotor system. The meeting focused on modern techniques to decipher cortical circuits, social interactions among rodents, and decision-making. The meeting allowed investigators to share their work via short talks, poster presentations, and a data blitz.     

Barrels XXXI comes to the inland empire

The 31st annual Barrels meeting was held on the campus of the University of California, Riverside on the first two days of November, 2018. The meeting focuses on the whisker to cortical barrel pathway and the systems it impacts. This year’s meeting focussed on the neural mechanisms of motor control, the functions of higher order thalamic nuclei and adaptable perception and decision-making.     

Barrels XXIII: Barrels by the shore

The 23rd annual Barrels meeting was held on the University of California, San Diego campus and highlighted the latest advances in the whisker-to-barrel pathway and beyond. The annual meeting brought together investigators from a dozen countries to present their data in posters and short talks. The meeting focused on several themes, first the barrel system was used as a model to study the consequences that result from alterations in the normal pattern(s) of development. A second session focused on what happens to whisker information once it leaves the layer IV barrel. A third session addressed issues of coding within the barrel system and a final session highlighted the latest advances in the engineering of transgenic mouse lines. The meeting highlighted the utility of the barrel system to study cortical circuitry in the normal and pathological state.     

The Second Annual Symposium of the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) in Gravitational Biology

The second annual meeting of the NSCORT in Gravitational Biology was held at Kansas State University on September 29-October 1, 1992. Symposium presentations at the meeting included ones on basic gravitational cellular and developmental biology, spaceflight hardware for biological studies, studies on Space Shuttle, and special talks on Space Station Freedom and on life support systems.     

Meeting report for the 4th Annual Complex Trait Consortium Meeting: From QTLs to Systems Genetics

The fourth annual meeting of the Complex Trait Consortium (CTC) was held in Groningen, the Netherlands on June 26–29, 2005. This meeting, which set a new attendance record, followed three previous and highly successful meetings. The focus at this meeting was on continued resource development and the exiting new field of systems genetics, the integration and anchoring of multi-dimensional data-types to underlying genetic variation. A new aspect at the meeting was the three-minute, ‘come see my poster’ presentations that generated significant interaction at the poster sessions. If the 2005 meeting is an indicator of things to come, future meetings promise to offer even more exciting research efforts to integrate high-throughput biological measurements with genetic variation to unravel the mechanisms responsible for inter-individual variation.     

Patterning the nervous system through development and evolution

We report presentations and discussions at a meeting held in May 2010 in the small village of Minerve, in the south of France. The meeting was devoted mostly but not exclusively to patterning in the nervous system, with an emphasis on two model organisms, Drosophila Melanogaster and Danio rerio. Among the major issues presented were fear and its neuroanatomy, life in darkness, patterning of sensory systems, as well as fundamental issues of neural connectivity, including the role of lineage in neural development. Talks on large-scale patterning and re-patterning, and on the mouse as a third model system, concluded the meeting.     

On the development of neural diversity in the brain

The FEBS meeting titled "Generating neural diversity in the brain" took place on the island of Capri, from October 13-16. This high-level workshop was the 20(th) in a symposium series organized by the IGB (Instituto Genetica et Biophysica) of Naples funded by international agencies including FEBS, EMBO, European commission. The series is unusual in featuring first-rank international scientist speakers for a meeting whose audience consists primarily of students and post-docs. The endeavour is thus more explicitly educational than many major meetings and the young audience helps create a lively atmosphere. With intense morning and evening sessions, the afternoons are left free for the participants to explore the island, go swimming or relax.     

Special-interest subgroups at the ASCB: Tau protein in neurodegenerative disease

The annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is a large and diverse gathering. At last year's meeting**The American Society for Cell Biology 38th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, USA; 12-16 December, 1998. Program chair: Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz., there were over 8000 attendees, and the topics discussed covered many areas of cell biology. It would be impossible to cover the entire meeting within a trends in CELL BIOLOGY report, so instead we are focusing on an aspect of it that provided some of the most interesting and fruitful discussions. On Saturday afternoon, before the main symposia began, there were 11 special-interest subgroup meetings. The atmosphere at these meetings was informal, and they encouraged open and frank discussion of data and issues. This report provides a brief summary of the discussions at seven of the special-interest subgroup meetings.     

分享科学，创造梦——美国第43届神经科学年会参会感

美国第43届神经科学年会于2013年11月9－13日在美国圣迭戈召开。本文根据作者的参会经历,对此次会议的概况、规模,以及内容作一简介,以期让读者了解神经科学这一研究领域的前沿以及美国神经科学年会的概况。     

Special interest subgroups at the ASCB: Regulation of actin dynamics by ADF/cofilins in vivo and in vitro

The annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is a large and diverse gathering. At last year's meeting*, there were over 8000 attendees, and the topics discussed covered many areas of cell biology. It would be impossible to cover the entire meeting within a trends in CELL BIOLOGY report, so instead we are focusing on an aspect of it that provided some of the most interesting and fruitful discussions. On Saturday afternoon, before the main symposia began, there were 11 special-interest subgroup meetings. The atmosphere at these meetings was informal, and they encouraged open and frank discussion of data and issues. This report provides a brief summary of the discussions at seven of the special-interest subgroup meetings.     

Barrels XXII meeting report: Barrels blow into the Windy City

The 22nd Annual Barrels Meeting blew into Evanston, near the Windy City, in November 2009 as the meeting was hosted on the Evanston, IL campus of Northwestern University. The longest running satellite meeting to the Society for Neuroscience Meeting annually brings together researchers from around the world focused on the development, function, behavior, and physiology of the rodent whisker-to-barrel system and other associated cortical and subcortical areas. The 2009 edition of the meeting was focused on three central themes: the molecular development and developmental plasticity in barrel cortex, optical analysis of barrel cortex function, and the coding of touch. The main symposia were complemented by short talks, data blitz sessions, and a poster session.     

Variant surface antigens, virulence genes and the pathogenesis of malaria

The first Molecular Approaches to Malaria meeting was held 2-5 February 2000 in Lorne, Australia. Following the meeting, Brian Cooke, Mats Wahlgren and Ross Coppel predicted that research into the molecular details of the mechanisms behind sequestration of parasitized erythrocytes would "become increasingly more complicated, with further interactions, receptors, ligands and functional domains". Furthermore, they cautioned that "the challenge will be not to lose ourselves in the molecular detail, but remain focused on the role of [the var genes and other multigene families] in pathogenesis of malaria". We contemplate on these statements, following the recent second Molecular Approaches to Malaria meeting, which was held at the same venue on 2-5 February 2004.     

Survey of the Influence of the Width of Urban Branch Roads on the Meeting of Two-Way Vehicle Flows

Branch roads, which are densely distributed in cities, allow for the flow of local traffic and provide connections between the city and outlying areas. Branch roads are typically narrow, and two-way traffic flows on branch roads are thus affected when vehicles traveling in opposite directions meet. This study investigates the changes in the velocities of vehicles when they meet on two-way branch roads. Various widths of branch roads were selected, and their influence on traffic flows was investigated via a video survey. The results show that, depending on the average vehicle velocity, branch roads require different widths to prevent a large decrease in velocity when vehicles meet. When the velocity on a branch road is not high (e.g., the average velocity without meeting is approximately 6 m/s), appropriately increasing the road width will notably increase the meeting velocity. However, when the velocity is high (e.g., the average velocity without meeting is greater than 10 m/s), there is a large decrease in velocity when meeting even if the road surface is wide (6.5 m). This study provides a basis for selecting the width of urban branch roads and the simulation of bidirectional traffic on such roads.     

Development of the musculoskeletal system: meeting the neighbors

In March 2011, researchers met for the second Batsheva Seminar on Integrative Perspectives on the Development of the Musculoskeletal System. This meeting was a unique opportunity for researchers working on muscle, connective tissue, tendons, ligaments and bone to discuss the development of the musculoskeleton, recognizing that it is an integrated, functional system. The talks and discussions at this meeting highlighted that interactions between the different tissue components are crucial for musculoskeletal morphogenesis.     

Barrels XXX meeting report: Barrels in Baltimore

The Barrels meeting annually brings together researchers focused on the rodent whisker to cortical barrel system prior to the Society for Neuroscience meeting. The 2017 meeting focused on the classification of cortical interneurons, the role interneurons have in shaping brain dynamics, and finally on the circuitry underlying oral sensations. The meeting highlighted the latest advancements in this rapidly advancing field.     

Alpine forest genomics network (AForGeN): a report of the first annual meeting

The Alpine Forest Genomics Network was formed in 2011 and held its first annual meeting on June 24–26, 2012, in the Natural Park Adamello Brenta in Trentino Region, Italy. The meeting was attended by 30 researchers from the alpine region of Europe and had two primary goals: (1) for researchers to introduce each other to current and planned research activities in forest landscape genomics and (2) to develop a strategic vision for the network. A steering committee was elected and will develop a white paper over the next year. The next annual meeting will be held in Austria in June 2013.     

New achievements in human cell toxicology: the 20th annual workshop on in vitro toxicology

The 20th Annual Workshop on In Vitro Toxicology (Oxford, UK, September 22-24, 2002) was convened as part of a European meeting entitled Human Cell Culture 2002. The meeting was arranged by the Scandinavian Society for Cell Toxicology (SSCT), the European Tissue Culture Society and the British Prostate Group. Two sessions, which are summarised in this report, were devoted to in vitro toxicology: Human Cell Toxicology and The SSCT Free Paper Session. Outstanding experts in the field of toxicology outlined contemporary approaches in toxicity testing in their lectures. Short oral presentations demonstrated a variety of in vitro model systems and methodologies, which can be useful for investigating human toxicity, as well as for studies on mechanisms of toxicity.     

Cortical development: the art of generating cell diversity

The fascinating question of how the enormous diversity of neuronal and glial cells in the cerebral cortex is generated during development was recently discussed at a meeting on cortical development and stem cells in Greece. What emerged from this meeting is an equally fascinating answer, namely that precursor diversity at rather early stages of development anticipates later cell type diversity.     

Cytokines 2017 in Kanazawa: Looking beyond the horizon of integrated cytokine research from the sea of Japan

At the 5th Annual meeting of the International Cytokine and Interferon Society held in Kanazawa, Japan from Oct. 29–Nov. 2 2017, new research was presented in the broad field of cytokine and interferon research. The meeting provided an outstanding platform for investigators in basic science and clinical research to communicate, share and discuss their recent findings in this fast moving area of research.