FASEB Summer Conference: Molecular Biophysics of Cellular Membranes being held in Vermont on July 20-25, 1996

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9600520 Silvius Recent research in mammalian cell biology has identified a number of important membrane related phenomena whose proper understanding will require a convergence of sophisticated approaches from the areas of both cell/molecular biology and structural biology/biophysics. In the past, large society meetings have provided the occasion for membrane researchers working within these often distinct disciplines to interact regularly and at 'critical mass' to discuss such problems (and strategies to approach them). However, at present to an increasing (and distressing) extent this is no longer the case. The key objective of this conference is to bring together structural/biophysical and cell-/molecular-biological workers to discuss questions of membrane organization and function that are emerging as key issues for the understanding of mammalian cellular function and whose resolution will require a combination of approaches drawn from the distinct disciplines just noted. To this end two complementary themes will be explored: the structure and dynamics of membrane proteins in relation to their function, and the supramolecular organization of membranes and its relevance to membrane function in mammalian cells. The proposed conference will build on three previous successful FASEB summer conferences in the area of membrane structure and dynamics (1988, 1990 and 1994). An important new element (and motivation) of the 1996 meeting, extending a welcome trend begun by the 1994 conference, will be a more extensive integration of topics and researches from the area of 1994 conference, will be a more extensive integration of topics and researchers from the area of cell and molecular biology. Exchange of information and ideas between researchers will be encouraged by combining symposium-style presentations from invited authorities, shorter presentations by conferees selected from submitted abstracts, poster presentations and two workshops designed to demystify emerging technologies with great potential to contribute to membrane-biological research. Special effort will be made in the program to provide opportunities for productive discussions and to encourage participation in these discussions by distributing summaries of the oral and poster presentations in advance to all conferees. A list of the topics and invited speakers that the conference will feature is given below. All speakers listed have agreed to participate. As noted above a limited number of additional conference applicants will be selected, based on submitted abstracts, to give short oral presentations of their research in areas that complement the theme of each session. %%%