2016 Molecular Basis of Microbial One-Carbon Metabolism GRC/GRS

该奖项将支持研究生和/或博士后参加2016年戈登微生物一碳代谢分子基础研究会议(GRC-C1)。会议的主要目标是介绍和讨论与生长在甲烷、一氧化碳和二氧化碳以及甲醇等单碳化合物上的微生物活动有关的新的基础研究成果。GRC-C1秉承这样一种理念，即早期传播开创性的基础研究有助于将基础知识转化为实际应用。GRC-C1计划将涵盖相当大的科学广度。它将涵盖厌氧和好氧微生物的C1代谢的所有方面，从分子到生态系统，并旨在从微生物学、生物化学、结构生物学、生物地球化学、生态学、进化和合成生物学提供补充的跨学科观点。主题将涵盖自养微生物、产甲烷菌、产乙酸菌、甲基营养菌和甲烷营养菌的广泛代谢多样性。将介绍氯代谢在生产生物燃料和高附加值化学品以及修复环境污染方面的创新应用。GRC-C1会议将有助于对微生物代谢过程的关键理解，这些过程对关键的生态系统服务和地球的全球运行至关重要，从而产生重大和关键的社会影响。这次会议将吸引包括生物化学家、微生物和分子遗传学家、生物信息学家、病毒学家、计算生物学家、数学建模专家、种群生物学家、进化学家以及分子、医学和环境微生物学家在内的众多人士参加。NSF的支持将使这批研究生和博士后研究人员能够与该领域的领军人物、早期职业和资深科学家见面并学习。

This award will support graduate student and/or postdoctoral participation in the 2016 Gordon Research Conference on the Molecular Basis of Microbial One-Carbon Metabolism (GRC-C1). The main goal of the conference is to present and discuss new, fundamental research findings related to the activities of microorganisms that grow on one-carbon compounds such as methane, carbon mono- and dioxide, and methanol. The GRC-C1 embraces the philosophy that early dissemination of pioneering basic research facilitates translation of fundamental knowledge into practical application. Advances in understanding the metabolic and evolutionary diversity of microbial life and the complex roles that microorganisms play on Earth will lead to applications in biotechnology, the food industry, agriculture, and medicine by conference participants from industry, colleges and universities, research foundations, and government laboratories. The GRC-C1 program will cover considerable scientific breadth. Overarching themes will include discovering new organisms and investigating microbiomes from a wide variety of environments, elucidating the connection between gut microbiota and human health, decoding genomes, unraveling metabolic pathways, and developing new bio-inspired networks for new research and application. It will cover all aspects of anaerobic and aerobic microbial C1 metabolism, from molecules to ecosystems, and aim to provide complementary cross-disciplinary perspectives from microbiology, biochemistry, structural biology, biogeochemistry, ecology, evolution, and synthetic biology. Topics will cover the wide-ranging metabolic diversity of autotrophic microbes, methanogens, acetogens, methylotrophs and methanotrophs. Innovative applications of C1 metabolism for production of biofuels and high added value chemicals, as well as for remediation of environmental contamination, will be presented. The GRC-C1 meeting will contribute to critical understanding of microbial metabolic processes crucial for key ecosystem services and the global functioning of our planet, thereby generating large and crucial societal impacts. The conference will attract a broad array of people including: biochemists, microbial and molecular geneticists, bioinformaticists, virologists, computational biologists, mathematical modelers, population biologists, evolutionists, and molecular, medical and environmental microbiologists. NSF support will enable this cadre of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to meet and learn from early career and senior scientists who are the leaders in this field.