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Scialog: Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems to Launch in 2025TUCSON, Ariz., April 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Neural systems, shaped by millions of years of evolution, enable living things to perceive and react to their surroundings. But how does the nervous system adapt to today's unprecedented challenge of rapid and extensive human-caused environmental changes, including exposure to pollution, toxins, and increasingly unpredictable environments? The process aims to spark creative and novel ideas for transformative research. In 2025, Research Corporation for Science Advancement, The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, and The Kavli Foundation will launch a Scialog initiative to catalyze research to explore neurobiological response to change and advance our understanding of the brain's chemistry, physiology, and adaptation mechanisms. The first meeting of Scialog: Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems will be held March 13 – 16, 2025, in Tucson, Arizona. "Interdisciplinary and transformative research is needed to advance our understanding of adaptive features that may equip organisms to overcome environmental stressors," said RCSA Senior Program Director Andrew Feig, who leads the initiative. This three-year Scialog series aims to create a dynamic community of about 50 early career scientists with diverse scientific expertise and perspectives from such fields as cell biology, genetics, neurophysiology, climate science, environmental chemistry, physical modeling, and toxicology. By maximizing interactions between researchers with different experiences and approaches, and who might not normally meet or work together, the process aims to spark creative and novel ideas for transformative research. At each conference, participants led by a group of senior facilitators will discuss challenges and bottlenecks, build community around visionary goals, and pitch proposals for seed unding to undertake blue-sky pilot projects. Scialog, short for "science + dialog," is a program created by RCSA in 2010 to bring together scientists from a variety of disciplines to focus their collective thinking on issues of global importance. "Frontier approaches are needed to explore and reveal nervous system adaptation due to current changing environments—now more than ever," said Kathy Richmond, Executive Vice President of the Office of Science and Innovation and Director of the Frontiers Group at the Allen Institute. "Through Scialog's focus on early career researchers, we are excited to join with The Kavli Foundation and RSCA to unleash the power of creative ideas born of multidisciplinary collaboration." The series of meetings will complement The Kavli Foundation's Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems multi-year initiative launched in 2023, supporting research investigating how neural processes—including molecular, cellular, and circuit-level mechanisms—are impacted by or resilient to changing environments. "Through this partnership, we are creating new opportunities for early career researchers to build awareness – and research programs – in this area," said Amy Bernard, Director of Life Sciences at The Kavli Foundation. "We are excited to support new interdisciplinary collaborations that will advance knowledge about how these changes may modify neuronal function, and may even shed light on novel pathways for resilience and adaptation." For full consideration as a Fellow for the first meeting of Scialog: Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems, nominate yourself or an early career colleague by September 1, 2024. RCSA's other Scialog meetings include the first year of Automating Chemical Laboratories in April 2024, the first year of Sustainable Minerals, Metals, and Materials in September 2024, the third year of Molecular Basis of Cognition in October 2024, and the first year of Early Science with the LSST in November 2024. About Research Corporation for Science Advancement About The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group About Paul G. Allen Family Foundation About The Kavli Foundation Media Contact View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/scialog-neurobiology-and-changing-ecosystems-to-launch-in-2025-302113766.html SOURCE The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group |