Current and former NIH-funded investigators, contractors or trainees, and members of FASEB constituent societies are invited to submit images of their research to this new competition, in celebration of FASEB Centennial.  The top 10 submissions will be featured on the FASEB and NIH websites, the NIH campus, and at FASEB’s centennial celebration on the United States congressional complex.  To learn more about the competition please go to: www.faseb.org/bioart.   The submission deadline is March 2, 2012. 

NIGMS has established two new divisions that will administer existing Institute programs along with programs transferred to NIGMS from the former NIH National Center for Research Resources (NCRR).  A news release on the reorganization is at: http://www.nigms.nih.gov/News/Results/20120104.htm

Call for nominations for FASEB Excellence in Science Award – 2013. Nominations must be submitted on FASEB awards website by March 1, 2012.  For questions please contact: Linda Stricker ()

SDB Collaborative Resources (CoRe) is SDB's online collection of images, movies, and diagrams for learning and teaching developmental biology.  Developmental biology is without a doubt a visual science.  Your visuals can help explain development across many diverse species for various audiences (e.g. scientists, students, general public).  SDB needs your contributions in order to launch this great resource in January.  Learn more about submitting to CoRe here and see sample submissions. 

SDB-LASDB Pan-American Advanced Studies Institute (PASI) A Systems Biology Approach to Understanding Mechanisms of Organismal Evolution

The Fourth SDB-LASDB Pan-American Advanced Studies Institute (PASI) will be held at the Unversidad de la Republica and Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay April 16-25, 2012.  Applications are open to citizens of the United States of America and Latin American countries, as well as US permanent residents. For details, please see http://www.sdbonline.org/2012Course/course.htm

Deadline for submission extended to January 6, 6 PM Eastern time.

Eric Davidson of Caltech was presented on November 28, the 2011 International Prize for Biology by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for his contributions to deciphering gene regulatory networks.  Davidson has been a long-time SDB member and a recipient of 2007 Developmental Biology-SDB Lifetime Achievement Award. 

For more information:

 http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-biol/index.html

http://www.nih.gov/news/health/dec2011/nichd-07.htm

http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~mirsky/ehdavidson.htm

NIH recently published a new high-school curriculum supplement titled “Evolution and Medicine.” A number of NIGMS staff members helped develop and review the material.  You can see an outline of the supplement and order a copy for your own use or to share with others at:  http://science-education.nih.gov/customers.nsf/HSEvolution.htm. 

For junior investigators wishing to “skip the post-doc” and immediately begin independent research; candidates must be within one year of receipt of terminal research degree or completion of clinical residency.  See the instructions in RFA-RM-11-007. Additional information, including Frequently Asked Questions about the Early Independence Award Program is available at: http://commonfund.nih.gov/earlyindependence/. Send questions to .  The deadline for submitting Early Independence Award applications is January 30, 2012 with Letters of Intent due by December 30, 2011.

Two components of NSF’s Biology Directorate announce a significant change in proposal deadlines.  This change is very important to SDB members who are considering submitting NSF proposals in the fields of Developmental Biology, including the development of the nervous system; and on Evo/Devo research.  It is effective immediately and will affect everyone who was planning to submit a proposal during 2012.  We are no longer accepting full proposals in January.  Instead, we will accept pre-proposals on January 12, 2012 and invite a subset of those to submit full proposals on August 2, 2012.  Full proposals will not be accepted in January, and will be accepted in August by invitation only.  If you are writing, or considering writing, a new proposal or a revision for January 2012, it must be submitted as a pre-proposal.  If you were planning to submit a proposal during the summer of 2012, you must submit a pre-proposal in January 2012.  An exception is proposals for CAREER awards, which may be submitted on the due date listed in the CAREER solicitation.  They do not require pre-proposals.  The Special NSF Announcement is at: http://www.nsf.gov/dir/index.jsp?org=BIO.  The solicitation is at: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2011/nsf11572/nsf11572.htm

Non-SDB Meeting Grants to help defray costs of meetings organized by SDB members.