ABSTRACT
Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled Windows on the Brain: Formation and
Function of Synapses and Circuits and Disruption in Disease, organized by Drs. Kristin Scott, Paola Arlotta,
Rui M. Costa and Yimin Zou. The conference will be held in Taos, New Mexico from January 21-25, 2019.
A fundamental goal of neuroscience is to understand the molecular, cellular, and activity-based mechanisms
that control the formation and function of neural circuits and determine how these mechanisms become
compromised in neurodevelopmental, psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.
Over the past two decades, molecular neuroscientists have identified key molecules and mechanisms that
underlie synapse development, activity, and stability. Meanwhile, the study of neuronal circuits has been
revolutionized by new methods to visualize and map circuits in living animals, as well as the development of
approaches to control neuronal activity. Finally, disease researchers have identified genes associated with
neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. Animal models of these
diseases are proving useful to understand how dysfunction of affected genes and proteins contributes to
disease pathology. Although these fields are working on the same process, no small highly interactive
“Keystone-style” meetings bring these three groups together in the same room. Our symposium will bring
together leaders working on synapse development and function, circuit structure and function, and the study of
brain disease, believing with confidence that mutually beneficial insights will emerge from discussing each
other’s work.