Signal Transduction Through Tetraspanins and Other Multi-Protein Cell Surface Com

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We request partial funding for a FASEB Summer Research Conference entitled, "Signal Transduction through Tetraspanins and Other Multi-Protein Complexes," to be held June 22-27, 2008 at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale University. Tetraspanins play important roles in a wide range of fundamental cellular processes including motility, adhesion, invasion, cell-cell interactions, fusion, polarity, and receptor trafficking. Genetic evidence has uncovered critical functions for tetraspanins in immunity, sperm egg fusion, brain development, control of cell proliferation, epithelial integrity, synapse formation, and the maintenance of photoreceptor morphology. In addition, tetraspanins have emerged as important regulators in a variety of pathological settings, including tumor cell metastasis, mental retardation syndromes, hepatitis C virus binding, HIV budding, and malaria parasite invasion. Tetraspanins participate in such a broad range of processes because they act as cell surface organizers, assembling multi-protein complexes containing a diverse but specific set of cell surface receptors, Ig super family proteins, and membrane- bound growth factors and proteases. As a result, the tetraspanin researchers are extraordinarily diverse and include basic cell biologists, vascular biologists, developmental biologists, cancer biologists, immunologists, virologists, membrane biologists, and neurobiologists. The goals of the 2008 FASEB Tetraspanin Conference are (i) to provide a common forum for tetraspanin researchers who, owing to the diversity of the field, might otherwise be unlikely to attend the same professional meetings, (ii) to create new connections between established tetraspanin researchers and researchers studying tetraspanin partners in other contexts and, (iii) to foster a broader research community centered around the roles of membrane organizing proteins in signal transduction. To accomplish these goals, the meeting will have a balanced, interdisciplinary agenda with nine main sessions in which the common theme of cell surface organization will be explored in the context of many different cell types and disease states. The FASEB Tetraspanin Conference will thus provide a unique opportunity for scientific interaction, the establishment of new collaborations, and the exchange of valuable research reagents, all of which are expected to increase the pace of discovery in the biomedically important field of tetraspanin research.