2026 Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology Gordon Research Conference and Seminar

About This Grant

Project Summary The 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology will bring together investigators whose work spans molecular, cellular, and systems levels of analysis to define how molecular events shape synaptic organization, circuit computation, and vulnerability to neurological disease. Recent advances in mechanotransduction, metabolic sensing, synaptic nano-architecture, circuit imaging, connectomics, and spatial transcriptomics now allow researchers to relate molecular mechanisms to circuit dynamics and to the chronic conditions that remain major public health challenges. The scientific program is organized around a thematic progression—from sensing and sustaining neural states, to the molecular architecture and assembly of synapses, to the circuit mechanisms underlying action and adaptive behavior, to methods for resolving brain structure and function across scales, to developmental constraints on connectivity and the mechanisms that confer vulnerability in aging and neurodegeneration. To achieve the goals of this meeting, we will address three aims: Aim 1, to bring together neuroscientists working at the forefront of synapse biology, circuit formation, circuit plasticity, large-scale brain mapping, and the mechanisms of neurodevelopmental, neurodegenerative, and psychiatric disease, and to provide a setting in which they can examine recent advances and define new directions for the field; Aim 2, to facilitate interaction among researchers from across the United States and abroad through a program structure that interleaves investigators from different regions and career stages within each session, enabling sustained discussion of shared mechanistic questions; and Aim 3, to promote the next generation of neuroscientists through curated short talks selected from trainee abstracts, integration of junior investigators into the scientific platform, and a trainee-led Gordon Research Seminar that will allow students and postdoctoral fellows to build a peer network and prepare for the main conference. Together, the Conference and Seminar will provide a coherent framework for examining how molecular processes map onto circuit function and chronic disease, and will support the continued growth of a community committed to mechanistic clarity and innovation in Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology.