SPARC Plug Spring 2023

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SPARC News

Coming this quarter: Exciting maps additions

This quarter, the SPARC Data and Resource Center (DRC) is releasing a landing page for maps. It will allow users to navigate directly to the 3D whole-body map as well as to the new functional connectivity map. The functional connectivity map captures the semantics and connectivity of the body’s anatomical and physiological organization. It will link with the SCKAN knowledge base and provide a user interface to modeling studies designed to address the body’s integrative physiological function.

SPARC supports career advancement with presentation opportunities

Early Investigator Award Recipients Honored at APS 2023

SPARC attended the American Physiology Summit in Long Beach on April 20-23, conducting demos and connecting with conference-goers. SPARC-funded PIs Drs. Hunter, Cheng, and Bizanti lectured about their respective research. Emerging Scientist travel award recipients Dr. Jin Chen and Ph.D. candidate Kohlton Bendowski gave presentations. See the SPARC-related APS research presented at this link on the SPARC News and Events page.

Inaugural SPARC Phase 2 PI Meeting Introduces New Award

NIH offered two categories of travel support to showcase emerging scientists’ contributions, as well as a new award to those traditionally underrepresented in the biomedical research community. The awards included support to attend and present at the SPARC Phase 2 PI meeting and optional attendance to the BRAIN Initiative annual meeting (to be held just 2 days before). Noa Nuzov, Sara Bokhari, Mona Mohamed, Edgar Pena, and Nafiseh Saleknezhad are recipients of the Diversity and Inclusion travel support. Emerging Scientist winners are Naveen Jayaprakash, Shane Bender, and Jichun Zhang.

The NIH and the SPARC Phase 2 research teams look forward to welcoming the awardees to our first Phase 2 PI in-person meeting and their contributions shaping the successful development of SPARC research devoted to the vagus.

Codeathon Coming Up

The annual SPARC FAIR codeathon is coming up in just a couple of months! SPARC codeathons focus on projects that use SPARC data and/or SPARC tools and resources in novel ways. This year’s event takes place in the cloud Aug. 5-7 and offers $50,000 in cash and prizes. For more information, visit this link on the SPARC News and Events page.

SPARC Seeks ANS and PNS Data Contributions

SPARC is an open repository! Since the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy (DMS) went live in January, SPARC welcomes all peripheral neuromodulatory and autonomic nervous system researchers to submit data and computational studies for professional FAIR curation and hosting.

SPARC Community Spotlight

SPARC’s News and Events page features SPARC-funded scientists’ success stories and community spotlights! The latest community spotlight shines on the achievements of Yvette Taché and her team at UCLA. Together, they’ve found ways to visualize the proteins in various species’ colonic systems. Read more about this groundbreaking research at this link.

NIH News

New Funding Opportunity Deadline Approaches

The NIH presents two released funding announcements for administrative supplements supporting the use of SPARC data and resources, as well as enhancing biomedical workforce diversity. Submissions are due June 30 for both opportunities. The link to the funding announcement for use of SPARC datasets is here, and the link to the funding announcement for workforce diversity is here.

Other recent opportunities included support for collaborations to improve the AI/ML-readiness of NIH-supported data, and to enhance software tools for open science.

Search for funding announcements by clicking here, or bring one to our attention to share with the community.

Conferences and Calls for Papers

Submit Your SfN Abstracts Soon

The Society for Neuroscience meets in Washington, DC Nov. 11-15 and abstract submission opens May 31. The SPARC DRC will have a strong presence at the conference, including social activities, demonstrations, and presentations. Find out more about Neuroscience 2023 at this link.

American Autonomic Society 2023

The 34th International Symposium on the Autonomic Nervous System will take place in Puerto Rico Nov. 15-18. For more information, visit this link. And as always, let us know if you are presenting at this or any other conference. Just email [email protected] or let us know on the SPARC Portal at this link.

Frontiers Special Issue Abstracts Due July 24

The Frontiers special issue “Modeling, Estimation, and Control Approaches to Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Peripheral Organ-Specific Diseases” seeks submissions. Abstracts are due Monday, July 24. For more information, visit this link. This issue will be of special interest to SPARC researchers and contributors so even if you’re not submitting an abstract, keep an eye out for this exciting publication.

Webinars

CARSS Open-Source Autonomic Neuromodulation Tech Webinar

The CARSS Center is inviting any physicians, researchers, or anyone otherwise interested in autonomic neuromodulation to attend an upcoming webinar on May 24 at 11 a.m. PT. This webinar will discuss current designs for implantable, open-source platforms for autonomic closed-loop neuromodulation. Attendees will join in discussion with other clinicians and researchers in the neuromodulation space to provide input on the clinical needs that these tools will address. Sign up here: Webinar Registration Form

Webinar Recording on New Python Cookiecutter Service in o2S2PARC

SIM-Core held an exciting webinar March 28. Participants learned how they can contribute to the library of models available on o2S2PARC, the SPARC computational modeling and simulation platform. The webinar demonstrated how a new Python library – the cookiecutter-osparc-service – makes it very easy to convert code into reusable modules on o2S2PARC. In case you missed the webinar, check out the recording on the SPARC YouTube channel.

SPARC DRC Open Office Hours

Join one of our weekly office hours to ask questions and learn more from the SPARC Data Resource Center Team. Find out more at this link on the SPARC Portal.