2013 MECHANISMS OF MEMBRANE TRANSPORT GRC

描述(由申请人提供)：我们计划了一次戈登研究会议，忠实于GRC的杰出历史和传统，将促进生产力和激励性 交流意见，以获得对膜运输过程及其调控的机械性理解。近年来，运输和渠道领域取得了非凡的进展，这对这次会议的时机和可能产生的影响来说是个好兆头。膜蛋白的高分辨率结构的获得，激发了人们对这些转运蛋白和其他转运蛋白的功能和机制分析的浓厚兴趣，并吸引了一批新的年轻研究人员。这次会议的中心目的是通过整合结构数据和功能发现来阐明运输机制。这种类型的整合不仅是了解转运蛋白功能的关键一步，也是了解它们的RAGE洗剂和许多这些蛋白质在疾病中的作用的关键一步。这次会议将为年轻的研究人员提供一个理想的机会，与该领域的顶尖科学家进行广泛的互动，这种互动类型在其他环境下很难实现。会议报告中涉及的领域将包括生理学、生物化学、生物物理学和细胞生物学。即将引入的一个新课题将为该领域带来新的变革视角：一种识别和定量运输过程中中间体的新方法，包括使用基于第一原理的方程分析动力学和电生理数据，以产生参与运输所有阶段的分子构象和底物占据态的相对布居。我们将组织一次高度创新的会议，重点关注这一方法，在那里我们将讨论运输过程中的热力学、动力学和构象状态。会议还将讨论如何使用计算方法来回答同样的问题，并提供有关构象状态之间转变的详细信息。我们的会议将突出尖端发现，并将聚集有前途的年轻科学家和许多当今该领域最成功的研究人员。因此，强有力的财政支持对这次会议的成功至关重要，特别是对于招募年轻的研究人员，包括研究生、博士后研究员和初级教员。像这样的会议对他们未来职业生涯的影响怎么估计都不为过。鉴于膜转运体和通道在离子代谢、视网膜营养物质吸收和神经元信号调制等过程中的关键生理作用，许多将要讨论的主题在基础和医学领域都是至关重要的。更好地了解膜转运体和通道的潜在机制不仅对于阐明一系列生命分子的正常生理学是至关重要的，而且对于开发新的治疗药物和治疗各种疾病，包括高血压、抑郁症、甲状腺功能减退、吸收不良综合征和囊性纤维化也是至关重要的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We have planned a Gordon Research Conference that, true to the GRC's distinguished history and tradition, will foster productive and stimulating exchanges of ideas aimed at obtaining a mechanistic understanding of membrane transport processes and their regulation. The field of transporters and channels has seen extraordinary progress in recent years, which bodes well for the timing and likely impact of this meeting. High-resolution structures of membrane proteins have been obtained, spurring a strong interest in functional and mechanistic analyses of these and other transporters, and attracting a new crop of young researchers. The central aim of this conference is to illuminate transport mechanisms by integrating structural data and functional findings. This type of integration is a crucial step toward understanding not only the transporters' function but also their rage- lotion and the role of many of these proteins in disease. This meeting will provide an ideal opportunity for younger investigators to interact extensively with top established scientists in the field, a type of interaction that is difficult to achieve in other settings. The areas to be addressed in the presentations at the conference will include physiology, biochemistry, biophysics, and cell biology. One new subject to be introduced will bring a new transformative perspective to the field: a novel approach to identifying and quantitating intermediates in the transport process, which consists of analyzing kinetic and electrophysiological data using first-principles- based equations to yield the relative populations of the molecular conformational and substrate occupancy states that participate in all stages of transport. We will organize a highly innovative session focused on this approach, where we will discuss thermodynamics, kinetics, and conformational states during transport. The session will also address the use of computational methods to pursue the same questions as well as to provide detailed information about the transitions between conformational states. Our conference will highlight cutting-edge discoveries and will gather promising young scientists and many of the most successful investigators in the field today. Therefore, robust financial support is crucial to the success of this meeting, particularly for recruiting young investigators, including graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty members. The impact that a conference like this can have on their future professional lives cannot be overestimated. Given the key physiological roles of membrane transporters and channels in such processes as ion metabolism, in retinal absorption of nutrients, and signal modulation in neurons, many of the topics to be covered are crucial lee relevant in both the basic and medical realms. A better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of membrane transporters and channels is essential not only for the elucidation of the normal physiology of a host of vital molecules, but also for the development of new therapeutic agents and approaches to a wide variety of diseases, including hypertension, depression, hypothyroidism, malabsorption syndromes, and cystic fibrosis.