James Mason Bower - US grants

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): The computational Neuroscience Annual Meetings will be held in the 3rd week of July in each of the next 5 years. CNS*99 will be held in Monterey, California, and subsequent meetings will alternate between Boston, Monterey, and Bozeman, Montana. The CNS meetings serve as a format for the presentation and discussion of research that employs theoretical and/or experimental methods to study the functional organization and operation of nervous systems. Presentations at the meetings focus on the nature of the processing tasks or "computations" executed by nervous systems, the codes by which information is represented during the execution of these tasks, and the structure of the neural machinery through which the computational algorithms are implemented. This meeting is intended to facilitate interdisciplinary interactions between experimentalists and theorists using a wide variety of preparations and approaches, and to help those researchers discover and articulate the general principles that emerge from these studies. The meetings are open to all interested registrants. Attendance at past meetings has been approximately equally distributed between graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and senior researchers.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The General Neural Simulation System (GENESIS) was first released for general use in 1988 as part of the first Methods in Computational Neuroscience Meeting at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. Since its release 15 years ago, GENESIS has provided one of the foundations for the ongoing course in Woods Hole, the annual Methods in Computational Neuroscience Course offered by the European Union most recently in Portugal, and courses in Mexico, Brazil, and India, At last count GENESIS has also provided support for courses in at least 49 universities around the world where it has been used both as an instruction tool in realistic modeling of the nervous system, and as a simulation based tool for neurobiological education in general. The Book of GENESIS (Bower and Beeman, 1994, 1998), which was designed to support both computational and neurobiological instruction has sold more than 6000 copies worldwide. This substantial support for the use of GENESIS in instruction has also provided the base for extensive and growing use of this software system in biological research. Although far from a complete accounting of the scientific papers relying on GENESIS, we are aware of 183 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters not directly related to research in the P.l.'s laboratory, which reference the use of GENESIS. In the last year and a half alone, we are aware of 41 peer reviewed publications based on GENESIS. With this grant, we seek funding to support both the current and future use of GENESIS. While GENESIS has a large and growing user base, its 15 year old structure needs to be updated in order to continue to support research and education in computational neuroscience. We also request funding to continue to support our users, as well as the ongoing need to adapt GENESIS to new machine software and hardware. Finally, we request funding to support an annual meeting of the GENESIS users society BABEL.

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Conference on Biologically Realistic Modeling in Computational Neuroscience

Lay Abstract

Increasingly, biologists are relying on computer models of the systems they study to aid in the organization of experiments and interpretation of the resulting data. The proposed meeting will bring together researchers to discuss a particular type of model: those based on a biologically accurate representation of the system
in question. This approach results in highly complex models which require state-of-the-art computers, computer software and analysis techniques. The meeting will take place over three days. The first
day is devoted to tutorials in two tracks, beginner and advanced to discuss modeling techniques and applications. The second and third days will consist of presentations of ongoing research results from
many different laboratories involved in the construction of realistic simulations. Funds will primarily be used to support travel costs of graduate students to attend the meeting, which will take place in San Antonio, Texas.

The UMB Scholars program will provide stipend and research support for 12 students (6 from Biology and 6 from Math/Statistics) to work collaboratively on advanced problems in Computational Neuroscience and Bioinformatics under the mentorship of established investigators. To facilitate this collaborative research, UMB Scholars majoring in biology will be required to add a minor in math/statistics; those majoring in math/statistics will be required to add a minor in biology. This approach offers the best way to ensure that all students are exposed to a coherent, logical and systematic series of foundational and more advanced courses in both fields. From a broader perspective, the UMB Scholars program will showcase to the much larger university community the importance and value of quantitative thinking and approaches in modern biological science. Successes of UMB Scholars following their graduation from UTSA will underscore the message that adding an academic minor in biology, math or statistics to their course of study is the best way for a student to prepare for a future in biological research. The UMB Program will serve as a catalyst for a comprehensive, coordinated and integrated restructuring the of current undergraduate curricula in biology, math, statistics and computer science to eliminate deficiencies and constraints that limit quantitative approaches in undergraduate education at this institution .The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) is a public institution serving San Antonio and South Texas. Students targeted for this UMB program are the University's large Hispanic population. Currently, UTSA ranks first in the nation in the number of baccalaureate degrees awarded to Hispanics in biology and ninth in the number awarded in mathematics.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal seeks financial support for participation of US students, postdoctoral fellows and invited speakers at CNS*2010, an annual international computational neuroscience conference. CNS*2010 is being held under the aegis of the Organization for Computational Neurosciences, Inc. a US not-for-profit 501(c)(3) serving the needs of an international community of scientists actively engaged in using quantitative tools to address questions in neuroscience. The Specific Aims of CNS*2010 are 1) To provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of computational and theoretical models and quantitative data analyses to explain the dynamics of neural systems, in particular the brain, in health and disease across multiple scales;2) To provide a rich learning environment for students and postdoctoral fellows through tutorials and workshops led by experts;3) To engage the computational and experimental neuroscience communities in the emerging field of Neuroinformatics through a special lecture series and symposium.;4) To disseminate the conference abstracts through open-access publication accessible by the world-wide web and 5) To foster international collaboration 6) To celebrate 20 years of progress in computational neuroscience. The conference will bring together, a large body of international scientists working across scales (molecular to systems) and disciplinary roots (biology to mathematics to computational neuroscience) in San Antonio, Texas. The conference will leverage investment from the Neuroscience community in San Antonio with support from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, and the University of Texas San Antonio. Both institutions are federally designated as serving populations under-represented in science and technology. The conference will include tutorials and workshops, and invited speakers and solicit for peer review abstracts and papers that include experimental, computational, engineering and theoretical approaches in neuroscience for contributed talks and posters. It will offer a forum that not only strengthens links between quantitative and experimental neurosciences, but is sufficiently broad enough to allow a discussion of interlinked neural systems at multiple scales that is needed to understand the broad spectrum impact of neurological disorders, neurotrauma, and drug addiction on neural behavior, plasticity and function. It will also be an attractive platform for fostering the budding field of Neuroinformatics. The conference will emphasize involvement of young transdisciplinary scientists, including women and other underrepresented groups in sciences in all facets, including programmatic leadership. RELEVANCE: This proposal seeks support to defray partial costs for participation of US students, postdoctoral fellows and invited speakers at CNS*2010, the nineteenth annual international computational neuroscience conference to be held July 23rd - 30, 2010, in San Antonio, Texas.