Progress 12/15/17 to 12/14/18
Outputs
Target Audience:The 2017 meeting "Mechanisms in Plant Development"was the 15th meeting on this topic and was held atVermont Academy in Saxtons River (VT) from July 30 - August 4. This conference was an important and unique scientific meeting where the intersections of plant development, signaling, modeling and genomics were explored through talks, poster sessions, and intensive scientific discussion. It covered broad areas of plant development, including sessions on local and long-range signals, the interface between cell and developmental biology, new approaches to modeling development and plants emerging as new models for important developmental traits. This year, in particular, we were excited about including more cutting edge research directed towards a fundamental understanding of how different aspects of plant growth and development are controlled in response to intrinsic and external signals, and how such mechanisms are modified over evolutionary time. The meeting brought together 145 researchers at all levels from Universities and research institutions in the US (57.2%), Europe (32.6%) and elsewhere in the world (10.2%). Among them, 26 invited speakers (including the Keynote speaker) and 7 session chairs, all recognized leaders in the field. The Keynote address on the opening evening was 45 min, whereas presentations from the remaining Invited speakers were 30 min. With two female organizers and an almost equal ratio of 46% to 54% female and male invited speakers, respectively, this meeting represents an outstanding example for gender equality in science. In addition, 30 abstracts were selected for short talks (15 min) and presented by graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty. Again here, the numbers of female and male presenters was nearly equal (13 female, 17 male) and roughly reflective of the ratio of submitted abstracts. Minorities were represented in 2 speakers and six attendees. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In addition, the meeting included two Meet the Speakers sessions were organized during Monday's and Wednesday's lunch breaks. During Thursday's lunch a new Career Development session was organized where trainees and junior faculty had the opportunity to join discussion groups led by tow or more senior researchers addressing the following topics: 1) Starting new research directions, 2) Publishing your work, 3) Career choices (landing a postdoc, faculty, or related position), 4) Starting your own lab, 5) Mentoring, 6) Does and don'ts in collaborations, 7) Science and social responsibility, 8) How to create a sustainable work/live balance, 9) Women in Science: challenges and opportunities. Poster sessions were held on Monday and Tuesday evening with 46 posters each, from trainees, junior and even senior researchers. These provided opportunities for very fruitful discussions and great interactions between young researchers and established PIs. On Wednesday evening an additional poster session was dedicated to PhD students, providing these young trainees with an ideal setting to interact with experts in the field. During that evening, a panel of "judges" selected the three best posters, who were given a small award. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The findings were dissemintated to the 145 conference attendees on site and to the larger community via a meeting summary published in Development (online version: the Node) http://thenode.biologists.com/2017-faseb-mechanisms-plant-development-meeting-summary/highlights/ What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This conference was an important and unique scientific meeting where the intersections of plant development, signaling, modeling and genomics were explored through talks, poster sessions, and intensive scientific discussion. It covered broad areas of plant development, including sessions on local and long-range signals, the interface between cell and developmental biology, new approaches to modeling development and plants emerging as new models for important developmental traits. This year, in particular, we were excited about including more cutting edge research directed towards a fundamental understanding of how different aspects of plant growth and development are controlled in response to intrinsic and external signals, and how such mechanisms are modified over evolutionary time. The meeting was organized in nine sessions, typically with three presentations from invited speakers and five short talks each. This format greatly increased the diversity of the meeting, and allowed inclusion of hot-of-the-press stories, not known at the time the invited speakers were selected. This format was very favorably perceived. The first session centered around the keynote address by Phillip Benfey, PhD from Duke University, who provided a comprehensive perspective on the most current systems biology approaches and their applications in understanding development. Presentations on the following four days were organized into the following sessions: 2) Alternations between generations, 3) Short range signaling, 4) Pluripotency and regeneration, 5) Gene regulation and regulatory networks, 6) Patterning mechanisms, 7) Evolution and comparative development, 8) Growth dependent morphogenesis, and 9) Environmental adaptations. A detailed overview of individual sessions is given below.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Frank, M ; Hasak, O ; Leiboff, S ; Lindner, H ; Manzano, C ; Mueller, L ; Raissig, M ; Richardson, A ; Runions, A ; Soyk, S. 2017 FASEB Mechanisms in Plant Development Meeting summary. Development ISSN 0815-0192.
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