Invited Speakers:

Overview:
This 19th Annual Southeast Nerve Net meeting is designed to bring together neuroscience research groups from the southeastern United States. It is intended to be a forum not only for the presentation of completed work, but also the discussion of ideas and works in progress. This year’s meeting will be held from March 21-23, 2003, at the Whitney Laboratory, located just south of beautiful St. Augustine, FL in the town of Marineland, FL. In keeping with the tradition of this meeting, graduate students and post-doctoral researchers are strongly encouraged to submit abstracts for presentation. As always, graduate students and post-docs will be given top priority for oral presentations, whereas faculty members are asked to present their work in a poster format. In order to allow everyone the opportunity to present, participants can be the first author on only one presentation.

The meeting will begin with a Happy Hour and sign in on Friday evening in the Whitney Hall lounge. Saturday’s schedule will include oral and poster presentations by graduate students and post-docs, with a complimentary continental breakfast and boxed lunch. Saturday evening’s events include a keynote address by Kenneth Muller, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Miami School of Medicine, followed by a reception for participants and their guests. The meeting concludes on Sunday with an address by Barbara-Anne Battelle, Ph.D., Whitney Laboratory and Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida, and a continental breakfast.

The organizers of this year’s meeting have strived to achieve a balance between scientific and social interaction throughout the weekend. Several informal gatherings will take place during the weekend to stimulate scientific discussion, including the Saturday evening reception, which will include hot and cold food items, drinks, and desserts. Also, posters can be displayed on Friday night and remain in place until the close of the meeting on Sunday to aid in the exchange of ideas. A new feature for this year’s meeting is the presentation of monetary awards to the top oral and poster presenters (graduate students and post-docs only).

For those who have never been to a SENN meeting, visit these web sites to see what it's like. The 2002 meeting was at Georgia State University in Atlanta (http://biology.gsu.edu/senn/) and the 2001 meeting was at Florida State University in Tallahassee (http://www.neuro.fsu.edu/faculty/fadool/senn.html). If you have specific questions you may email Judith Ochrietor or call at 904-461-4037.

Location:
The venue for the 2003 SENN meeting will be the Whitney Laboratory in the town of Marineland, just south of St. Augustine, FL. This five-acre campus of the University of Florida is located on a narrow barrier island nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway in northeastern Florida. For more information, click here.

Driving directions:
From the North: From I-95, take the Hastings/Crescent Beach exit #305 (old #93).
Continue east on SR 206 to Rte. A1A on Anastasia Island
Turn right onto Rte. A1A.
Continue south for ~8 miles to the town of Marineland
Whitney Laboratory is on the right.

From the South: From I-95, take the Flagler Beach exit #284 (old #91).
Continue east on SR 100 to Rte. A1A in Flagler Beach.
Turn left onto Rte. A1A.
Continue north for 14 miles to the town of Marineland.
The Whitney Lab is on the left at the north end of Marineland.

From Gainesville: Take SR-26 East out of town, until reaching the intersection with SR-100 (~16 miles).
Turn right (east) on SR-100, towards Palatka. You will stay on this road ~24 miles.
Continue through Palatka. In East Palatka, turn left at SR-207 North.
After ~9.5 miles, turn right on SR-206, towards Crescent Beach.
Drive about ~15 miles east until SR-206 ends, and you reach A1A (you should have driven past US 1 (stoplight) and then, a few miles east, over a bridge).
At A1A, turn right (south).
Continue south for approximately 8 miles until you reach the town of Marineland. The Whitney Lab is on the right (look for the sign), just as you enter the town.

• Free parking on Whitney Laboratory property
• Free baby sitting services

Accommodations:
Participants should make housing arrangements prior to the meeting. When making a reservation at Beacher's Lodge, Palm Coast Villas, or Ocean Shore Villa, indicate that you are attending the Southeast Nerve Net at the Whitney Lab.

• Beacher’s Lodge, 6970 A1A South, St. Augustine, 7 miles north of Whitney Lab, $89.10/night (plus tax) for room with two double beds and $125.10/night (plus tax) for a room with one queen bed. (904) 471-8849
• Palm Coast Villas Motel, 5454 N. Ocean Shore Blvd., Palm Coast, 5 miles south of Whitney Lab, $69/night (plus tax) for Room Style B. (386) 445-3525
• Ocean Shore Villa, 6287 N. Ocean Shore Blvd., Palm Coast, 3 miles south of Whitney Lab, $54.50/night (plus tax) for a room with a kitchen and one queen bed. (386) 445-3033. Click here for picture.
• There are also numerous Best Western, Clarion, Comfort Inn, and Holiday Inn hotels in the St. Augustine area.

T-shirts can be ordered at the time of registration and abstract submission for $11.

Please make check for T-shirts payable to Judith Ochrietor and mail to:
Judith D. Ochrietor
Whitney Laboratory
9505 Ocean Shore Blvd.
St. Augustine, FL 32080

Instructions for participants:

Please note: In order to allow everyone the opportunity to present, participants can be the first author on only one presentation.

Abstract submission: Abstracts for presentation should be received on or before February 7, 2003. Please prepare an abstract in PDF format, and email as an attachment to SENN@whitney.ufl.edu. Use Times Roman font. Include TITLE (all capitals), Author Names, Institutions and text within a space 5” long by 4” wide. Please indicate in your email if you would prefer a poster or an oral presentation. Due to time constraints, some people requesting oral presentations may be asked to present a poster instead.

Oral presentations: Fifteen minutes will be allotted for each oral presentation. Plan an 11-12 minute talk to allow for 3-4 minutes of questions and discussion. Prepare oral presentations using Power Point software. Presenters will need to send their presentation on a CD to the above address by March 14, 2003. Please bring a back-up CD to the meeting.

Poster presentations: Posters will be on display in the same room as the oral presentations. Please hang posters on Friday evening or before the start of the oral presentations on Saturday. Posters should be no larger than 66” wide by 42” long. Text should be large enough to be read from 3ft away.

Judging: All graduate student and post-doc presentations will be evaluated for organizational style and content by a group of faculty judges. Monetary awards will be presented at the Saturday evening reception for the best oral and poster presentations.

Schedule

Area Activities:
Although the Laboratory is situated in a rural seaside area, most of the cultural and educational amenities of northeast Florida are close by. To the north are St. Augustine (18 miles) and Jacksonville (60 miles); Daytona Beach is to the south (45 miles); and the main campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville is only 78 miles to the west.

For more information :
St. Augustine Online
Events Online
Flagler Beach.

Review of Meeting The 2003 SouthEast Nerve Net meeting held at the Whitney Laboratory from March 21-23 was an overwhelming success. Faculty members, post-docs, graduate students, undergraduates, and high school students from Florida State University, Emory University, Georgia State University, University of Miami, the University of Florida, and the Whitney Laboratory were in attendance to discuss their scientific progress and socialize with their colleagues. The meeting began with a happy hour in the Whitney Hall lounge, where the participants were able to relax before Saturday’s events, talk about their science, and share stories about their trips to St. Augustine. On Saturday, after a continental breakfast and opening remarks by Dr. Peter Anderson, director of the Whitney Laboratory, graduate students and post-docs gave oral presentations until a break at noon. After enjoying boxed lunches and the Florida sunshine, participants viewed the posters prepared by high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, as well as post-docs and faculty of the participating schools. Another session of oral presentations by graduate students and post-docs took place before the key note address by Ken Muller of the University of Miami. He entertained the audience by pulling a leech out of his pocket, placing it on an overhead projector, and demonstrating the reflexive shortening that occurs in response to a touch stimulus. Ken’s lecture, entitled “Regeneration of a Circuit for Learning” was well received by the entire community of participants. Following the key note address, a reception was held at the Moby Dick Lounge at Marineland of Florida. During the reception, awards were presented to the top oral and poster presenters, as decided by a panel of University of Florida and Whitney Laboratory faculty judges. The Oral Presentation award was presented to Matthew Geddis, a graduate student at Georgia State University for his talk entitled “Second Messenger Requirements for the Formation of New Growth Cones from Injured Neuronal Processes.” The Poster Presentation award was shared by Nicole Tester, a graduate student at the University of Florida for her poster entitled “Can Chondroitinase Treatment Stop the Gag Order on Growth?” and Randa Perkins, an undergraduate student at Florida State University for her poster entitled “‘Super-Smeller’ Mice and Altered Olfactory Connections in KV1.3-Null Mice.” An Honorable Mention was also awarded to Monica Murphy, a high school student, for her poster entitled “Mosquito Larvae as a Model for Integrative Transport Biology.” The meeting concluded on Sunday morning with a continental breakfast and a talk by Barbara Battelle of the Whitney Laboratory entitled “Circadian Regulation of Photoreceptors.” Barbara’s talent for teaching and passion for her research was exemplified throughout the talk, during which she encouraged audience members to be informal and ask questions along the way. The goal of the organizers of this year’s meeting was to achieve a balance between scientific and social interaction throughout the weekend. This goal was indeed met, as members of the leech CNS communities, the Aplysia communities, and the circadian rhythms/vision communities, from several schools in the Southeastern portion of the United States interacted with each other. The pleasant weather on Saturday also added to this positive experience, as scientists gathered at picnic tables and discussed their work. A great deal of positive feedback was received by the meeting staff in terms of meeting location, the schedule of events, and the potential for social and scientific interaction. We are all looking forward to next year’s meeting, which will be held in Atlanta, Georgia. Here are a few images to remind you of what a great time we had.

SENN Steering Committee

Paul Katz (Georgia State University)
Peter Anderson (Whitney Laboratory)
Debi Fadool (Florida State University)
George Augustine (Duke University)
Ronald Calabrese (Emory University)
Danielle Gray (Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Atlanta University Center)
Purvis Bedenbaugh (University of Florida)

Sponsors: