2011 Chemical & Biological Terrorism Defense Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal requests partial support for the joint 2011 Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) and the 2011 Chemical and Biological Terrorism Defense Gordon Research Conference (GRC), to be held in Ventura, CA, March 19-20 and March 20-25, 2011, respectively. The broad and long term goal of the conference, as embodied in the theme for the 2011 GRC, is "Basic Research as the Foundation for Future Countermeasure Development". There are numerous challenges in developing defenses, particularly medical countermeasures and detection systems, to address biological or chemical threats. This Conference will focus on an array of primarily basic research topics in which new research discoveries should lead to developing countermeasures or defenses for biological and chemical threats. The specific aims of these two meetings will be to convene a total of 50 participants for the GRS and 135 participants for the GRC, of which it is anticipated that 12 will be discussion leaders and 47 will be speakers to represent new and critical areas of research, to allow the "leap ahead" in new approaches to integrating preparedness for the health impacts of chemical or biological terrorism based on basic research discoveries. The two-day GRS program focusing on students and post-doctoral fellows that precedes the GRC will have a keynote address, two oral presentation sessions, and two poster sessions. The main GRC program will have a keynote address session and eight scientific sessions that focus on synthetic biology, host-pathogen interactions, pathogen and toxin virulence factors, cutting edge chemical defense advances, and broad spectrum platform technology approaches to discovering and developing defenses for biological and chemical threats that both leverage and integrate recent advances in basic research applications. In addition to the oral presentations, ample opportunities for poster sessions will be provided. The significance of this application is that the Gordon Research Conference on Chemical and Biological Terrorism Defense provides a unique opportunity for close interaction and exchange of research information among of researchers in this somewhat "niche" area. The health relatedness of this application is that the ultimate goal of research in chemical and biological terrorism defense is to provide new opportunities for health interventions, whether they are drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, or detection systems, to help protect the population of the United States in the event of a terrorist attack with these agents. Project Narrative: The health relatedness of this application is that the ultimate goal of research in chemical and biological terrorism defense is to provide new opportunities for health interventions, whether they be drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, or detection systems, to help protect the population of the United States in the event of a terrorist attack with these agents.