The Oregon Health & Science University DOHaD Summer Course

Project Summary The purpose of this application is secure funding for a 5-year period to support travel awards to enable US-based registrants from diverse backgrounds that are selected in an equitable manner to attend the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) annual Developmental Origins of Health and Disease

(DOHaD) Summer Course, which is held the first week of August each year at OHSU. The target demographic is graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and early career investigators who have a primary interest in the fundamentals and the latest advances in the DOHaD field, but who may not have the resources to attend the week-long course. Attendance will further provide the opportunity for them to

interact with leaders in the DOHaD field and each other, thus fostering connections among the next generation of scientists and leaders. The long-term objective is to continue to expand DOHaD and placental-related research nationally, develop interactive collaborative networks in this field, and support

the development of early career scientists. The meeting will feature lectures from OHSU faculty members who work in the DOHaD area, that cover the fundamental principles and cutting edge work in thematic areas (e.g. cardiovascular, neurodevelopment) relevant to DOHaD. On day one, a “connections corner-like” event will allow attendees to interact with each other and faculty. Attendees will be assigned a

mentor for the meeting and will take part in an experimental design challenge where they will design specific aims and experiments to address a research question for presentation at the end of the conference. In addition, all registrants are required to submit an abstract describing their own work for

poster presentation on day two of the meeting. The R13 funded travel awards will be selected by a competitive review of these abstracts by the organizing committee and ranked according to clarity and content. During award selection, the committee will give special regard to representation of minorities

and claims for financial support. In addition, this grant will sponsor one Keynote lecture by an accomplished scientist outside of our institution to provide attendees with state-of-the-art perspective on a leading issue in DOHaD. This will be an individual who is not necessarily a DOHaD scientist, but is

clearly a leader in an area that has relevance to DOHaD (e.g. angiogenesis, apoptosis, cancer biology). This Keynote Speaker will serve as a focal point for a plenary session and workshop in that area. This individual will be designated the NIH-Lecturer at each meeting.