FASEB CONFERENCE: HELICASES: STRUCTURE, FUNCTION

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请是为2003年FASEB夏季会议“解旋酶：结构，功能和在人类疾病中的作用”提供部分资金，该会议将于2003年6月28日至7月2日在佛蒙特州萨克顿河的佛蒙特学院举行。 会议将在美国实验生物学学会联合会（FASEB）的主持下举行。 将有九个主要的科学会议;每个会议将包括平均25分钟的口头报告。 将有两个海报会议，每个将持续两天。 解旋酶是分子马达蛋白，其利用NTP水解的能量沿核酸单向移位沿着并分离核酸双链体的互补链。 解旋酶还可以使RNA的二级结构不稳定，去除核酸相关蛋白，并使核酸穿过各种孔。 通过执行这些功能，解旋酶充当负责DNA复制、修复、重组转录、核糖体生物合成、翻译、RNA剪接、RNA编辑、RNA转运、RNA降解、细菌接合和病毒包装/解包装的细胞机制的组成部分。 近年来发现，一些遗传性人类疾病（如Bloom综合征、Werner综合征、Cockayne综合征和着色性干皮病）是由编码特异性解旋酶的基因缺陷引起的。 解旋酶缺陷也与基因组不稳定性相关，并且许多导致癌症发病率增加。 尽管这组蛋白质很重要，但我们对解旋酶的结构和功能仍有很多不了解，我们对解旋酶在肿瘤发生和衰老等复杂过程中的生物学作用知之甚少。 这次会议的目的是汇集结构生物学家，酶学，生物化学家，遗传学家，和那些更临床的观点，分享想法和解旋酶的新信息。 这一领域正在以极快的速度发展，每周都有关于解旋酶在人类疾病中的机制、结构和作用的新信息出现（2001年发表了近500篇与解旋酶有关的研究论文）。 这是FASEB关于这个主题的第二次会议，也是自大约25年前发现第一个解旋酶以来专门讨论解旋酶的第四次会议。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application is for partial funding of the 2003 FASEB Summer Conference on "Helicases: Structure, Function and Roles in Human Diseases" to be held from June 28 to July 2, 2003 at the Vermont Academy in Saxtons River, Vermont. The conference will be held under the auspices of the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB). There will be nine major scientific sessions; each session will include on an average 25 minute oral presentations. There will be two poster sessions, each will last two days. Helicases are molecular motor proteins that use the energy of NTP hydrolysis to unidirectionally translocate along nucleic acid and separate the complementary strands of the nucleic acid duplex. Helicases can also destabilize the secondary structure of RNA, remove nucleic acid associated proteins, and thread nucleic acids through various pores. By performing these functions, helicases serve as integral parts of the cellular machinery responsible for DNA replication, repair, recombination transcription, ribosome biogenesis, translation, RNA splicing, RNA editing, RNA transport, RNA degradation, bacterial conjugation, and viral packaging/unpackaging. Recently it has been found that several inherited human diseases (e.g. Bloom syndrome, Werner syndrome, Cockayne syndrome and Xeroderma pigmentosum) are caused by defects in genes encoding specific helicases. Helicase defects are also associated with genomic instability and many result in an increased incidence of cancer. Despite the importance of this group of proteins, there is much that we do not understand about helicase structure and function and we know even less about the biological role of helicases in complex processes like oncogenesis and aging. The goal of this meeting is to bring together structural biologists, enzymologists, biochemists, geneticists, and those with a more clinical view to share ideas and new information on helicases. This field is progressing at an extremely rapid pace with new information on mechanism, structure and the role of helicases in human diseases emerging on a weekly basis (there are close to 500 research papers related to helicases published in 2001). This is the second FASEB meeting on this subject and only the fourth meeting dedicated to helicases since discovery of the first helicase about 25 years ago.