Conference: 2024 NY RNA Symposium in The Finger Lakes

This award will support The NY 2024 RNA Meeting in the Finger Lakes to be held on October 13th-15th, 2024. The meeting will include participants from a wide range of career stages and research areas, including undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, principal investigators, and scientists in the biotechnology industry. It will be organized through the joint efforts of the Center for RNA Biology at The University of Rochester and the RNA Institute at The State University of New York at Albany. The meeting provides an opportunity to bring together leaders in the field of RNA biology with new investigators and trainees at multiple career levels to present, discuss, and disseminate their work. The conference affords a rich opportunity for broader impacts on the community through (i) participation of diverse researchers, including from groups underrepresented in STEM fields, (ii) advancement of STEM education, and (iii) development of a diverse and competitive STEM workforce by catalyzing partnerships between researchers in the academia and industry. The format of this meeting is designed to maximize attendee exposure to the frontiers of RNA biology through seminars from invited speakers on a range of topics, ‘lightning’ talks by trainees, an extensive poster session, and many opportunities for informal conversations. The meeting topics include nascent RNA metabolism, structural RNA biology, RNA in neuroscience, CRISPR biology, RNA therapeutics, and RNA vaccine development. Meeting participants will thus be immersed in a broad swath of contemporary interests driving RNA biology both in academia and the biotechnology industry. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.