PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT This R13 application is to request support for the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Neurochemistry (ASN) to be held April 14-18, 2024 in Portland, Oregon. The total expected attendance for the ASN 2024 meeting in Portland is ~500. Past NIH financial support for the ASN meeting has been critical for our goals of enhancing training for future neurochemistry researchers, and for implementing an attractive educational and professional development program. ASN continues to build its scientific program around four interwoven, but distinct, themes to accommodate the breadth of neurochemistry and to provide in-depth analyses of chosen topics: 1) Building the Nervous System, 2) Metabolism and Cell & Molecular Neurobiology, 3) Glial Cell Biology, and 4) Neurodegeneration and Neurodevelopmental Disease. These themes have been selected to increase our understanding of the cellular and molecular basis of neural development and disease. Each theme has one of the four Plenary/Presidential speakers and is represented in varying proportions each year based on the submission of session proposals from the ASN membership and neurochemistry community. ASN is strongly committed to representation at its meetings by underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities, individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, and women. While two of the four Plenary/Presidential speakers and >50% of the Chairs/Co-Chairs/Speakers of Symposia and Colloquia are female, we are vigilant in trying to identify, encourage, and secure greater numbers from other underrepresented groups. One of the major goals of ASN is to advance the education and recruitment of early career investigators. The ASN strongly supports these individuals through travel awards, mentorship, and various training workshops. In addition, recent representation of trainees/junior faculty in Symposia and Colloquia has been 40% for Chairs/Co-Chairs and 45% for speakers. The annual ASN meeting provides participants numerous opportunities to network, collaborate, and exchange ideas. There is also plenty of time for attendees to congregate informally. Multiple activities are planned during the meeting to enhance professional development of early career investigators including 1) career development sessions run by the early career development committee, 2) a student/postdoctoral fellow mingle for networking, 3) lunches with the plenary speakers, 4) participation in Public Forum, High School Day, and the Women in Neurochemistry lunch event, 5) oral sessions selected from submitted abstracts, with an emphasis on presentations from trainees, 6) two poster presentations for sharing findings and receiving feedback, 7) to defray costs of attendance travel awards for outstanding early career scientists are available. This year we have increased the number of awards and are committed to providing at least 25% of the awards to under- represented groups as an impetus to further ...