Project Outcomes The Rustbelt RNA Meeting (RRM) is a regional conference focusing on RNA–related research that is held annually in the Midwestern United States.  The RRM attracts a diverse array of participants from both research intensive and predominantly undergraduate institutions (PUIs) located in the “Rustbelt” and surrounding areas.  A central goal of the RRM is to provide unique opportunities for professional development of trainees through presentation of talks and posters combined with events designed to promote networking and career development.

Overview The 19th annual RRM provided a professional scientific meeting at a very reasonable cost, easily affordable for students, postdocs and principal investigators from large research universities, small liberal arts colleges and intermediate size schools with a mixed mission to attend.  The meeting was held in Indianapolis, IN at Sheraton City Center Hotel on October 13-­14, 2017.  A key advantage of this location is its accessibility by car to longstanding attendees from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky while newer attendees from Illinois, Minnesota or Wisconsin were able to easily join the meeting the first time.

The 2017 meeting assembled researchers with diverse backgrounds and interests in RNA science ranging from genomics to biophysics.  Through a full schedule of nearly 133 posters and 26 oral presentations by student and post­doctoral trainees, the RRM provided a high caliber intensive experience for participants and fostered collaborative interactions between trainees and PIs across traditional disciplinary boundaries.  The meeting featured a keynote lecture by Professor Christopher Burge from MIT – who made exceptional contributions to the field of RNA Computational Biology. Furthermore, first time in RRM’s history, pre-meeting activities were offered to trainees starting Friday morning with two Computational Workshops followed by a Career Mentoring Lunch.

• The first workshop organized by Dr. David H. Mathews focused on recent advancements in RNA structure prediction.
• The second workshop led by Dr. Sarath Chandra Janga focused on analyzing and interpreting CLIP-sequencing data.
• The Career Mentoring Lunch organized by Dr Timea Gerczei enabled interactions between 60 trainees and 14 mentors from diverse institutions.

Intellectual Merit The intellectual merit of the RRM revolves around the sharing of new (generally unpublished) research in RNA science, broadly defined.  Recent years have witnessed breakthroughs in the identification and characterization of regulatory and catalytic RNAs, as well as in genome wide approaches to RNA expression and folding.  The 2017 RRM attracted the most geographically diverse group of participants in the history of the meeting.  Trainees and PIs alike were provided with unprecedented learning and networking opportunities through formal and informal mechanisms.  Attendees were exposed to a broad array of techniques and tools employed in cutting edge RNA research performed at the cellular, molecular and atomic levels, as well as computational approaches for data analysis and management.  New trainees as well as junior faculty and senior scientists looking to move their research in new directions benefited from the talks, posters, and energized atmosphere of the RRM.  The RRM creates a natural environment for forging interdisciplinary collaborations between researchers at diverse institutions ranging from small liberal arts colleges to large research universities.

Broader Impacts The broader impacts of the RRM revolve around providing an affordable yet high- quality conference that undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral trainees can participate and benefit from. Moreover, first time in 2017, the meeting provided training opportunities free of charge to students and postdoctoral fellows in the form of two Computational Workshops that were led by nationally recognized leaders of the field. The meeting has a rich history of spotlighting trainees, nearly all of whom presented their research either as a poster or a talk.  All but two of the twenty-eight oral presentations were delivered by students or post­doctoral scholars, as were the vast majority of posters. The poster session featured 133 entries judged by nearly 40 faculty members, two per poster.  Each talk was followed by incisive questions from the audience and the exchanges between trainees and PIs at the poster session were also very lively.  Unique features of the 2017 meeting were 1) two computational workshops, 2) a lunch that focused on career-related issues faced by trainees featuring representatives from industry and multiple academic institutions - both of which scheduled on friday morning before the main conference, enabling early depature of delegates on saturday 3) two of the four sessions were chaired by PIs from PUIs. As has been customary since 2013, NSF funds were utilized to fund accommodation and registration of 12 underrepresented minority trainees. In summary, the RRM is an exceptionally valuable meeting for researchers pursuing diverse aspects of RNA science.  Although regional, it features very high-quality talks and posters comparable to (and in many cases arguably better than) national and international meetings? it is affordable and conveniently located? and provides outstanding opportunities for trainees to present their findings and interact with PIs and fellow students in their field.

Last Modified: 03/20/2018
Modified by: Sarath C Janga