FASEB CONFERENCE-- CILIATE MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Partial support is requested for the "Eighth International Meeting on Ciliate Molecular Biology." This meeting will be held as a FASEB Conference at the Vermont Academy in Saxtons River, Vermont, July 28 - August 2, 2001. The meeting will bring together researchers who employ molecular approaches for investigating diverse biological problems using ciliated protozoa as their model system. The great value of ciliates stems from their unusual genetic organization and extensive, developmentally-programmed reorganization of the genome. These features have provided remarkable insights into an array of fundamental chromosomal processes, including the discovery of self-splicing RNA, telomeres and telomerase, and chromatin remodeling by histone acetyltransferases. Recent advances, such as targeted gene replacement by homologous recombination and intisense ribosomes have been exploited to study a wide range of questions in cell and molecular biology, ranging from telomeres and telomerase, to regulated protein secretion, to tubulin modification during microtubule assembly. The pace of research has quickened due to the development and dissemination of new experimental methods. For this reason and others, the Ciliate Molecular Biology Meeting fills a critical niche that is otherwise lacking in other scientific meetings. The 1999 meeting included a workshop for assessing practical issues and justification for a Tetrahymena genome sequencing project. A large spectrum of areas in human biology and medicine could be favorably impacted by this project. Subsequent meetings will play an important organizational role and will facilitate efforts to generate the collective commitment needed to move this project forward. The Ciliate Molecular Biology meeting will be organized into nine platform sessions and two poster sessions. Platform sessions will cover leading edge research topics including chromatin remodeling, telomeres and telomerase, DNA rearrangement, DNA replication, signal transduction, the cytoskeleton, evolution, and genome plasticity. Approximately 170 foreign and domestic scientists will attend the meeting. The organizers for this conference are Dr. Geoffrey Kapler (DNA replication, Texas A&M), Dr. Jacek Gaertig (the cytoskeleton, University of Georgia (UG)) and Dr. Laura Landweber (evolution, Princeton University).