Conference Proposal: Calcium and Cell Function

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Funds are requested to cover partial support for the 2004 FASEB Conference on Calcium and Cell Function, to be held in Snowmass, Colorado. Calcium is a critical second messenger, which is essential for processes ranging from T cell development to fertility, neurotransmitter release, sensory transduction and cell migration. Furthermore, defects in calcium signaling are associated with a host of diseases affecting excitable and non-excitable cells. The goal of this conference, which takes place every two years, is to provide a forum for scientists from a diversity of fields to present and discuss the latest and most exciting developments in the calcium field. We have aimed to attract many scientists to this meeting who have not participated in previous conferences on calcium signaling, despite the relevance of there work to the topic of the meeting. In particular, many scientists who work on sensory signaling, neuronal development and neuronal physiology have not attended past meetings, due to a former emphasis on non-excitable cells. We expect the mix of participants, combined with the informal setting and relatively modest size of the meeting (maximum of 165 participants), to generate lively discussions and the establishment of new interactions among scientists who ordinarily do not attend the same conferences. The meeting will include nine sessions with oral presentations, two keynote addresses and four poster sessions covering topics ranging from calcium regulation of gene expression to sensory signaling, calcium regulation of development and regulation of vesicular and protein trafficking by calcium. The topics to be covered at the meeting are of fundamental importance and are relevant to understanding the bases of a diseases such as neurodegeneration, communicative disorders, aging, cancer, kidney and cardiovascular disease.