The nonprofit Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) sponsors a series of Science Research Conferences (SRCs) each year. These conferences offer scientists a collegial and relaxing environment to discuss and explore new findings and approaches to specific research areas. The Translational Neuroimmunology Conference: From Mechanisms to Therapeutics was held June 29-30. This meeting was FASEB’s first SRC that was conducted via a fully virtual format, consequent to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was originally scheduled to be held on July 19-22 at the Babson Executive Conference (Babson, MA, USA), before FASEB leadership made the difficult decision to cancel all in-person SRCs through the summer and strongly encouraged organizers to conduct virtual conferences. When we were asked to organize the first virtual conference, we were initially concerned about changes to scientific content, mode of presentation, and opportunities for interactions between the session chairs, speakers, and audience. Nevertheless, we decided to proceed, in light of the importance of this SRC to the scientific community in neuroimmunology, and to young and emerging investigators in particular. Among the dramatic changes to the meeting format, we reduced the original 9 sessions, spanning a 5-day period, into 4 sessions, spanning 1.5 days. The most difficult task was ensuring that the remaining four sessions covered a representative range of cutting-edge topics in discovery-based research and clinical neuroimmunology. When we conveyed the news of the revised meeting format, we were met with overwhelming support and understanding from the invited speakers and chairs, a true testament to the communal and civil ethos of our colleagues. This, in combination with outstanding help from FASEB staff, made the change from an in-person meeting to a virtual format not only possible, but surprisingly smooth. The revised meeting agenda consisted of three keynote talks, 21 invited oral presentations within four sessions, and 37 poster presentations. Overall, 50% of the speakers were women, 12.5% of speakers were underrepresented minorities (URMs), and 50% of session chairs were women. Attendance to the meeting was impressive, exceeding that of former in-person meetings, with 181 registered participants, 57% of whom identified as females, and 11% of whom identified as URMs. In addition, 54% of attendees were Early Career Scientists (defined as faculty with <10 years of experience, postdoctoral associates, and graduate students).

中文翻译：

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2020 年 FASEB 转化神经免疫学科学研究会议：从机制到治疗，2020 年 6 月 29-30 日

美国实验生物学协会 (FASEB) 的非营利联合会每年都会赞助一系列科学研究会议 (SRC)。这些会议为科学家们提供了一个合议和轻松的环境，以讨论和探索特定研究领域的新发现和方法。转化神经免疫学会议：从机制到治疗学于 6 月 29 日至 30 日举行。这次会议是 FASEB 的第一次 SRC，它是在 COVID-19 大流行之后通过完全虚拟的格式进行的。它原定于 7 月 19 日至 22 日在巴布森执行会议（美国马萨诸塞州巴布森）举行，之后 FASEB 领导层做出了艰难的决定，在整个夏季取消所有面对面的 SRC，并强烈鼓励组织者进行虚拟会议. 当我们被要求组织第一次虚拟会议时，我们最初担心科学内容、演示方式以及会议主席、演讲者和观众之间互动机会的变化。尽管如此，鉴于该 SRC 对神经免疫学科学界，特别是对年轻和新兴研究人员的重要性，我们决定继续进行。在会议形式的巨大变化中，我们将原来为期 5 天的 9 场会议缩减为 4 场，为期 1.5 天。最困难的任务是确保剩余的四场会议涵盖基于发现的研究和临床神经免疫学领域具有代表性的前沿主题。当我们传达修改会议形式的消息时，我们得到了受邀演讲者和主席的压倒性支持和理解，真正证明了我们同事的社区和公民精神。这与 FASEB 工作人员的出色帮助相结合，使得从面对面会议到虚拟会议的转变不仅成为可能，而且非常顺利。修订后的会议议程包括三场主题演讲、四场会议中的 21 场受邀口头报告和 37 场海报展示。总体而言，50% 的演讲者是女性，12.5% 的演讲者是代表性不足的少数民族 (URM)，50% 的会议主席是女性。参加会议的人数令人印象深刻，超过了以前的面对面会议，有 181 名注册参加者，其中 57% 为女性，其中 11% 为 URM。此外，54% 的与会者是早期职业科学家（定义为具有 <10 年经验的教师、博士后助理、