Conference: 2010 Protein Transport Across Cell Membranes GRC, Galveston, Texas

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Intellectual merit. This proposal requests support for the 2010 Protein Transport across Cell Membranes Gordon Research Conference (GRC) to be convened March 7-12, 2010 in Galveston, Texas. The Protein Transport across Cell Membranes GRC was established in 2005 to provide a focused meeting that would bring together research scientists who investigate protein transport across or protein insertion into cellular membranes in diverse organisms. There is no other regularly scheduled meeting that occurs in the US that is devoted to an in-depth coverage of this research field. Elucidation of protein transport mechanisms remains a fundamental objective of modern cell biology, as the analysis of fully sequenced genomes indicates that at least 25% of cellular proteins are either transported across or inserted into cellular membranes. Furthermore, knowledge of these protein transport mechanisms forms the basis for understanding import defects, which in several cases can lead to severe disease states. Bacterial protein transport mechanisms are also important because bacterial-specific protein transport pathways are responsible for the secretion of toxins and virulence factors. One of the main objectives of this conference is to promote interactions between scientists who use different model systems and experimental approaches to investigate protein transport mechanisms. Researchers in this field use a broad range of complementary approaches including cell biological, biochemical, genetic, biophysical, structural, computational and genomic analysis to provide novel insight into protein transport and insertion pathways. The protein transport field is international, and this is reflected in the selection of invited speakers and session chairs. Broader impacts. The overarching objective of this GRC on Protein Transport across Cell Membranes is to integrate research, education and training by strongly encouraging the active participation of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in all aspects of the conference. The conference will expose these junior scientists to a broad range of experimental systems and approaches that are being used by the leading laboratories in this field. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows accounted for 40% of the attendees at the 2005 and 2007 meetings of the Protein Transport across Cell Membranes GRC. Conference applicants are strongly encouraged to submit abstracts for the poster sessions. Fourteen additional speakers will be selected based upon submitted poster session abstracts. Every effort will be made to insure that the speakers selected for these "late-breaking talks" include a high proportion of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, junior faculty and members of under-represented minorities. Conference attendees will be selected from the pool of applicants, with the objective of including scientists from academic, industrial and government labs, both from within the US and other countries. The attendees will be selected from the pool of applicants in accord with the principles of affirmative action. Although results of the meeting will not be published, consistent with the off-the-record policy of the Gordon Research Conferences, a high level of exchange of information between conference participants at the formal sessions and poster sessions will occur. Almost all (90%) of non-speakers at the 2005 and 2007 meeting presented posters, so essentially all participants presented their research in one format or another. Enhancing the participation of junior scientists is a critical objective of this meeting, as this will insure the continued vitality of this research field in the future.