Project Summary This proposal seeks support for a conference on “Zebrafish Neural Circuits & Behavior” to be held at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory November 20 – 23, 2019. As a transparent, rapidly- developing, genetically-accessible vertebrate model, zebrafish is uniquely positioned to tackle outstanding questions in modern neuroscience, from the molecular underpinnings of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases to systems level investigations of sensorimotor transformation. The goal of the meeting is to assemble leaders in the field, together with junior faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students, to share their most recent discoveries and new technologies with a wide cross section of the zebrafish neuroscience community. Speakers will be selected from the submitted abstracts by the organizers and session chairs, based on impact and novelty with a strong emphasis on unpublished data. Selected speakers will include graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty, with the aim of maximal gender parity and inclusion of under-represented minorities. The meeting will include oral and poster sessions on genetic tools, imaging methods, sensory and motor systems, learning & memory, neuromodulation, neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders and neurodegeneration, and we expect the vast majority of the about 250 attendees of this moderately sized meeting to present a poster or talk. The conference will create a unique setting for sharing results and technologies, forging collaborations, coordinating community resources, and fostering the exposure and success of junior investigators and trainees, thus having the potential to have a major “slingshot” effect on the field to launch innovative and collaborative neuroscience research. This grant will support the partial registration and accommodation of the invited keynote speaker and discussion leaders, and provide financial support for recipients chosen based on the impact and originality of their abstracts as well as on the basis of gender, race, career stage and need.

Project Narrative Studies of the nervous system and its control of animal behavior are central to contemporary neuroscience. Significant efforts are underway to characterize the rules of development, organization, and computation that direct the proper construction and function of neural circuits. A rapidly growing community of researchers leverages the unique advantages of zebrafish to study the neural control of behavior using novel and original approaches. As this dynamic community needs a forum to interact and exchange their results we propose to hold a meeting entitled Zebrafish Neural Circuits & Behavior at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in November 2019. This meeting will bring together an interdisciplinary group of scientists using the zebrafish as a model system to discuss cutting edge approaches, new tools, and findings to understand the neural basis of behavior in health and disease.