FASEB SRC on Protein Lipidation: Enzymology, Signaling and Therapeutics

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Protein lipidation is a central process in cellular function. Lipidated proteins play critical roles in numerous human diseases including cancer, infectious disease and age-related disorders. We request funds to partially support the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB) conference on “Protein Lipidation: Enzymology, Signaling and Therapeutics” that will be held from July 7 – July 12, 2019 at St. Bonaventure University, Olean, NY. Historically, this meeting has brought together scientists in fields ranging from mechanisms and consequences of acylation, prenylation, and post-prenylation processing of proteins, the synthesis and transport of intracellular lipids, and the importance of protein-lipid interactions for cellular signaling in specialized membrane domains. This meeting is the only international venue where these broad but closely interrelated topics are discussed at length and is the first choice for many scientists. As the field has grown over the past fourteen years, it has become highly interdisciplinary and this unique meeting allows scientists from different areas of specialization, ranging from synthetic chemistry to clinical medicine, to come together and discuss new ideas and form new collaborations. Our confirmed keynote speaker is Frank McCormick, University of California at San Francisco who will present a lecture entitled “Targeting Ras and the Ras Initiative”. The conference is organized around four interrelated themes. First, it will showcase recent advances in structural biology and enzymology of enzymes involved in protein lipid modification. Second, new developments concerning the roles of lipid modifications in various physiological processes and diseases will be reported including cancer, infectious disease and age-related disorders. Third, new methodologies for studying protein lipidation and lipidated proteins will be presented. Finally, recent therapeutic efforts targeting protein lipidation will be reported. There will be 9 sessions and 36 speakers including 11 short talks. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will give two-thirds of the short talks, with the other third given by new investigators. We will also include a “Research Snapshots” session in which 10-15 students and postdoctoral fellows who brought posters but were not selected for short talks in the main program will be invited to give a 2 minute elevator pitch. To further increase our impact on students and postdoctoral fellows, two additional events will be held including a career development session and a meet-the-expert session where experts in four areas including chemistry, cell biology, structural biology and animal-based research will answer questions. The funds requested for this meeting will be used primarily to support graduate student and postdoc travel grants and to support the attendance of young investigators and session chairs.