NNFF Intl Consortium--Molecular Biology of NF1 and NF2

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We request funding for the next meeting of the International Consortium for the Molecular Biology of NF 1 and NF2 to be held May 20-23, 2001 at the hotel Jerome in Aspen Colorado. Under the organization of the National Neurofibromatosis Foundation (NNFF), these Consortium meetings have been held on a yearly basis and have served to consolidate the efforts of cell biologists, molecular biologists, and clinicians. Previous meetings led to the identification and cloning of the NF1 and NF2 genes; and facilitated understanding of their structure and function. Since 1995, the yearly meeting has alternated between a larger open format for which announcement is widespread and includes invitation for submission of abstracts by NF researchers throughout the world and a more limited format, in which specific participants and discussants are invited to participate. This latter format provides opportunity for increased discussion and focussing of strategic plans for the future. This year, we propose to bring in specialists from outside the NF field to evaluate current NF research. These will include leading experts in signal transduction, tumorigenesis, cytoplasm organization, and other areas. Each session will be co-chaired by an NF researcher and an outside specialist whose function will be not only to present a research talk but also to assist in guiding the discussion and evaluating the work in NF as it relates to state of the art approaches in each field. Selection of invited speakers has been made with an effort to include all pertinent areas of NF research with emphasis on recent advances. In six sessions, 4 speakers will be allowed 25 minutes for presentation and an additional 20 minutes for discussion. At the end, the "expert co-chair" will be asked to summarize in the context of the larger picture. To ensure the participation of young investigators, each participant will be invited together with one junior member of their laboratory (graduate student or postdoctoral fellow). We expect this opportunity to stimulate the interest of young scientists to pursue NF research (particularly those coming for the expert co-chair laboratories). We anticipate that this format will emphasize new breakthroughs and serve to identify of critical gaps in current approaches and/or understanding. The overall goal is to improve our understanding of the molecular and cell biology of NF1 with the understanding that advances will have important implications for the treatment of these disorders as well as more wide spread understanding of neuroscience, cancer, and development.