Ubiquitination and Cellular Regulation

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A FASEB summer conference entitled "Ubiquitin and Cellular Regulation" will be held June 26-July 1, 2004, at Vermont Academy. We request partial multi-year funding for this conference (2004, 2006, and 2008). FASEB has sponsored the leading conference on ubiquitination since 1989, when this field grew to a critical mass. The meeting is held biennially, except in the present case, where the last meeting was in 2001. The mission of the meeting has shifted in time, in response to the changing landscape of the field. At one time, the PI of every major lab in the field could expect to deliver a 25-min talk. In the late 90's, as the field exploded, it became necessary to focus carefully on the newest and most significant developments. The last meeting was highly successful, having been rated by 59% of participants as the best meeting they had ever attended. We strained to bring in newcomers to the field and shortened the talks so that a wider range of advances could be presented. The prior format, in which short talks selected from abstracts were relegated to the last day was abandoned, and these individuals had the chance to speak alongside more established researchers. We will generally keep to these new conventions in 2004, anticipating that they will again be well-recieved by speakers and nonspeakers. The field of ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like proteins continues to expand at a striking pace, with new labs constantly joining, emphasizing the importance of bringing people together at such a meeting. The growing importance of ubiquitination in human disease is well-recognized. Over 5% of the genome is apparently devoted to ubiquitination in plants. Similar estimates have been made for mammals. As stated by Nobel prize winner Michael Brown in regard to the recent Lasker award to ubiquitin reserachers, it "is at the very core of biology...I estimate that 1 in 10 papers in current biology journals deal with ubiquitin..." The meeting will highlight breaking advances both in the choice of invited speakers and in multiple talks selected from abstracts. Special attention will be made to give the floor to new and underrepresented groups of investigators. The location does not make for long afternoons skiing, but rather this conference has an outstanding tradition of intense poster sessions. Based on past experience, the conference will be oversubscribed by a large margin. To foster strong interactions among participants, the conference is limited to approximately 175 participants.