Conference: FASEB Ciliate Molecular Biology Conference, to be held in Saxtons River, Vermont, Summer 2003

“第十届纤毛虫分子生物学国际会议”将作为FASEB夏季研究会议于2003年7月19日至24日在佛蒙特州萨克斯顿河的佛蒙特学院举行。会议将汇集一个由160-170名研究人员组成的国际小组，他们采用分子方法研究以纤毛原生动物为模型系统的各种生物问题。从历史上看，对纤毛原生动物的研究为重要和普遍的生物过程提供了许多显著的见解，包括自剪接RNA、端粒和端粒酶的发现，以及组蛋白乙酰转移酶对染色质的重塑。这些生物的分子工具的持续发展使它们成为研究与各种真核生物共享的许多生物过程的有利模型。本次会议旨在促进未发表的研究成果和技术进步的有效交流。大会将举行10场平台会议和2场海报会议。平台会议的主题代表了纤毛虫研究的活跃领域，包括“染色质结构和功能”，“基因组组织和重组”，“DNA重排；《表观遗传学与染色质》、《DNA复制、修复与端粒》、《遗传学、基因组学与分子技术》、《细胞骨架与细胞运动》、《蛋白质运输与调节分泌》、《形态发生与发育》、《环境感知与行为》、《进化与种群生物学》。与会议同时举行的还有两个讲习班。第一个主题是“教室里的纤毛虫”。纤毛原生动物由于其复杂的生物学、庞大的体型和简单的培养要求，长期以来一直被用作教学工具。许多与会者开发了利用纤毛虫的教学模块（主要是本科课程）。研讨会将提供一个论坛来交流这些教学工具，讨论有效的项目，并促进开发有效的本科教育新方法。“功能基因组学和生物信息学”将是第二次研讨会的重点。在2001年FASEB关于纤毛虫分子生物学的会议上，一个类似的事件对纤毛虫基因组测序工作的规划起到了重要作用。2003年会议的会议和研讨会旨在进一步发展纤毛虫基因组测序工作，以及规划纤毛虫的生物信息学和后基因组资源。过去对纤毛虫的研究对生物学的许多领域都做出了巨大的贡献，基因组资源的进一步发展将确保这些生物仍然是研究基本生物学问题的有用和流行的模型。

The "Tenth International Meeting on Ciliate Molecular Biology" will be held as a FASEB Summer Research Conference at the Vermont Academy in Saxton's River, Vermont, July 19-24, 2003. The meeting will bring together an international group of 160-170 researchers who employ molecular approaches for investigating diverse biological problems using ciliated protozoa as their model system. Historically, work on ciliated protozoa has provided a number of remarkable insights into important and universal biological processes, including the discoveries of self-splicing RNA, telomeres and telomerase, and chromatin remodeling by histone acetyltransferases. The continued development of molecular tools for these organisms has made them favorable models for studying numerous biological processes shared with a wide variety of eukaryotic organisms. This meeting seeks to foster the efficient exchange of unpublished research results and technical advances. Ten platform sessions and two poster sessions will be held at the conference. The topics of the platform sessions represent active areas of ciliate research, and include "Chromatin Structure and Function", "Genome Organization and Reorganization", "DNA Rearrangement: Epigenetics and Chromatin", "DNA Replication, Repair, and Telomeres", "Genetics, Genomics, & Molecular Technology", "Cytoskeleton andCell Motility", "Protein Trafficking and Regulated Secretion", "Morphogenesis and Development", "Environmental Sensing & Behavior", and "Evolution and Population Biology." There will also be two workshops held in conjunction with the conference. The first will focus on "Ciliates in the Classroom". Ciliated protozoa have long been used as teaching tools because of their complex biology, large size, and simple culture requirements. Many conferees have developed teaching modules (primarily for undergraduate courses) that utilize ciliates. The workshop will provide a forum for exchanging such teaching tools, discussing programs that work, and stimulating the development of new approaches to effective undergraduate education. "Functional Genomics and Bioinformatics", will be the focus of the second workshop. A similar event at the 2001 FASEB conference on ciliate molecular biology was instrumental in the planning of ciliate genome sequencing efforts. The session and workshop at the 2003 meeting are intended to further develop the ciliate genome sequencing efforts, as well as to plan for bioinformatic and post-genomic resources for ciliates. Past work on ciliates has contributed greatly to many areas of biology, and the further development of genomic-based resources will assure that these organisms remain useful and popular models for investigating fundamentalbiological problems.