Mini-Zusman Workshop

2024 ZUSMAN SUMMIT IN REGENERATION BIOLOGY

The inaugural Zusman Summit in Regeneration Biology (March 7, 2024) provided an educational hub for trainees and early-stage investigators to learn historical principles as well as modern tools for the rigorous analysis of neural regeneration. This was a new initiative that developed from a need for more training in rigor and reproducibility. The Summit was a first-of-its-kind opportunity for experts and trainees to come together to discuss some of the most pressing challenges facing today’s scientists regarding rigor and reproducibility.

The keynote speakers included Dr. Oswald Steward (University of California at Irvine), who spoke on “Some Critical Issues for Scientific Rigor in Neurotrauma Research”; Dr. Henriette van Praag (Florida Atlantic University), who presented on “The Role of Exercise and New Neural Circuit Formation and Memory Function”; and Dr. Philip Horner, who lectured on “Initiation of Growth.” The Summit included presentations of case studies led by teams of researchers who were developing high risk, high impact studies (one of which had won an Elevator Pitch mini-grant at the 2023 Zusman International Workshop). The Summit was supported in part through Neural Control of Organ Degeneration and Regeneration (NeuralCODR) post-doctoral training program (NIH T32NS126115) and through philanthropic funding from Paula and Rusty Walter and Walter Oil & Gas Corp Endowment at Houston Methodist.