Conference: Cold Spring Harbor Laborarory Conference on Telemeres and Telomerase, to be held April 30-May 4, 2003 in Cold Spring Harbor, NY.

端粒是保护真核生物染色体末端的特殊蛋白质- dna复合物。在大多数真核生物中，端粒含有由端粒酶逆转录酶维持的短DNA重复序列。由于端粒酶抵消了伴随线性DNA复制的末端序列损失，因此这种酶是长期细胞增殖所必需的。自从人们认识到端粒动力学和端粒酶激活在人类癌症和细胞衰老中起着关键作用以来，端粒生物学领域迅速发展。因此，端粒领域现在是一个高度多样化和动态的领域，代表了各种各样的研究兴趣（癌症、衰老、细胞周期、减数分裂、重组、复制等）和大量不同的模式生物（哺乳动物、真菌、原生动物、植物）。前两次（1999年和2001年）冷泉港实验室关于端粒和端粒酶的会议至关重要，汇集了这一不同的研究人员群体，并通过展示大量未发表的数据激发了激烈的讨论和协同作用。由于CSH端粒和端粒酶会议代表了科学家在这个快速发展的领域中作为一个整体进行互动的唯一机会，因此这次会议对该领域的未来至关重要。此外，CSH会议的形式，所有的演讲都是从提交的摘要中选择的，最大限度地为新的研究人员和年轻的研究人员提供了展示他们最近未发表的工作的机会。前两次会议都有一个国际研究小组的高出席率。在过去的会议上，平台演示和海报展示了该领域早在发表之前的重大发现。预计2003年的会议将有同样多的与会者

Telomeres are specialized protein-DNA complexes that protect the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. In most eukaryotes, telomeres contain short DNA repeats that are maintained by the telomerase reverse transcriptase. Since telomerase counteracts the terminal sequence loss that accompanies replication of linear DNA, the enzyme is required for long term cellular proliferation. The field of telomere biology has grown rapidly since it was recognized that telomere dynamics and telomerase activation play a pivotal role in human cancer and in cellular senescence. As a result, the telomere field is now a highly diverse and dynamic area, representing a wide variety of research interests (cancer, aging, cell cycle, meiosis, recombination, replication, etc.) and a large number of different model organisms (mammals, fungi, protozoa, plants). The previous two (1999 and 2001) Cold Spring Harbor laboratory meetings on telomeres and telomerase, were crucial in bringing together this diverse group of researchers and resulted in vigorous discussion and synergistic interactions stimulated by the presentation of a very large body of unpublished data. Since the CSH telomere and telomerase meeting represents the only opportunity for scientists in this rapidly growing field to interact as a whole, this meeting is of the utmost importance for the future of the field. Furthermore, the format of CSH meetings, where all talks are chosen from submitted abstracts, maximizes the opportunity for new researchers and young investigators to present their most recent unpublished work. The prior two meetings had a uniformly high attendance rate from an international group of researchers. The platform presentations and posters at the past meeting presented the major discoveries in the field long before publication. It is anticipated that the 2003 meeting will be equally well attended