Membrane Transport Proteins Gordon Research Conference

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application requests partial support for the 2008 and 2010 Gordon Research Conferences (GRC) on Membrane Transport Proteins. This is a highly successful GRC that focuses on recent discoveries in a diverse group of ATPases, ion channels and transporters. The Conference places particular emphasis on developing connections, both scientific and collaborative, between investigators who do not normally interact and on bringing young investigators into the transport protein field. The 2008 Conference will be the 6th meeting of this group and will continue to stress the role of transport proteins in both their normal physiologic setting and their role(s) in a wide variety of disease states. The program is fully international, the 2008 meeting will feature 40 investigators (25 from the USA, 15 from Europe and Japan) covering a wide range of topics including: Glucose Transport in the Brain, TRP Channels in Health and Disease, Trafficking of Membrane Transporters, Multiple Drug Resistance and Anti-microbial, Anti-cancer and Antiepileptic Compounds, Structure of Membrane Transporters, CNS Diseases of Membrane Transporters, Heavy Metal Ion Transport, Membrane Transport and Metabolic Sensing, and Biotechnology: Molecular Sensors. The international scope of this conference is emphasized by the decision at the last meeting to alternate every two years between venues in the US and Europe in an effort to make the conference financially accessible to more investigators, particularly graduate students and post doctoral fellows. We expect to support a minimum of 25 young investigators at each meeting and will actively seek support from both industry and private foundations to further this goal. Particular emphasis has been placed on selecting both women and minority speakers and a plan is in place to recruit minority participants. The meetings will adhere to the well developed GRC format which emphasizes interaction between established scientists and between established scientists and young investigators. The effectiveness of these Membrane Transport Protein conferences will be evaluated using the well established questionnaires developed by the GRC faculty. The past five conferences have rated high marks; greater than 90% of the participants in the 2006 conference rated it as the "best conference they attended that year" and indicated the presentations were 'thought provoking, stimulating and exciting' at the 'frontiers of science'. The venue for the 2008 Conference is Il Ciocco, Italy close to convenient transportation sites, Lucca (25 miles), Pisa (39 miles) and Florence (74 miles). The site has modern facilities ideally suited to small GRC style meetings. Sufficient space is provided to have posters available for multiple days thus further facilitating interactions between younger and established investigators. In keeping with the decision to alternate meetings, the venue for the 2010 conference is tentatively planned to be at the University of New England in Maine.