This conference brings together two cutting-edge domains, transcriptomics and connectomics, and challenges participants to begin thinking seriously about how to approach and analyze the relationship between them. By their very nature, transcriptomics and connectomics deal with complex networks of molecules and neurons, and as such they are catalyzing a revolution in systems neuroscience that may well lead to fundamentally new ways of thinking about the etiology of brain disorders, and about their treatment in terms of novel underlying biological mechanisms. This conference is the first event jointly sponsored by the Center for Neural Circuit Mapping at UCI (https://cncm.som.uci.edu/) and the Cajal Club (https://cajalclub.org/). The Center for Neural Circuit Mapping is in its infancy. It was approved by the Dean in January, 2020, and is headed by Professor Xiangmin Xu. In contrast, the Cajal Club is an old-timer. It was founded in 1947 and in addition to annual events at the Society for Neuroscience meeting, it has sponsored or co-sponsored major symposia, starting in 2001 with one in Madrid, and followed by others in Stockholm, Querétaro, Copenhagen, Pavia, Seattle, and Puerto Varas, Chile. The current president of the Cajal Club, Professor Carol Mason (Columbia) sends her greetings and best wishes.The organizers are deeply grateful to the superb group of speakers who agreed to attend the conference. We also thank the staff of the UCI Center for Neural Circuit Mapping and of the Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering for making the venue so functional and attractive. And finally, we thank the Cajal Club’s Secretary-Treasurer, Charles E. Ribak, for facilitating the meeting. We look forward to a very rewarding two days of brainstorming.
