Conference: The Gordon Research on 2009 DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY; Proctor Academy, Andover, New Hampshire

发育生物学是生命科学的中心。它的目标是了解受精卵如何生长并转化为成年生物。发育生物学家揭示了胚胎发生和模式形成的基本生物学过程，导致了1995年的诺贝尔奖。他们还研究器官的形成，神经系统和性别是如何决定的。他们还发现了衰老的过程以及细胞死亡如何被编程以塑造有机体（诺贝尔奖2002）。发育生物学家也是第一个克隆动物的人。他们发现了microRNA（导致2008年拉斯克奖），并分析了导致癌症的主要信号通路。发育生物学家也取得了重要的技术进步，从基因组操作（诺贝尔奖2007）到RNAi（诺贝尔奖2006）和使用荧光蛋白的体内成像（诺贝尔奖2008）。它们为干细胞生物学和组织工程学提供了基础，并为理解人类出生缺陷和疾病创造了背景。该领域的影响是使用各种技术和知识方法研究整个生物体（而不是孤立的细胞）的结果。随着这些研究扩展到组织再生和系统生物学等新领域，预计未来几年将做出重大贡献。因此，发育生物学是生命科学的核心学科，并正在改变医学科学。超过120名发育生物学家将于6月21日至26日在戈登研究会议上讨论该领域的最新进展并交换意见。该会议将包括少数族裔和很大一部分女性，这反映了她们在该领域的高代表性。重点是邀请一些年轻人发言，避免重复在同一领域举行的以往会议。

Developmental Biology is at the center of the Life Sciences. Its goal is to understand how the fertilized egg grows and is transformed into an adult organism. Developmental biologists have uncovered the basic biological processes of embryogenesis and pattern formation that led to the Nobel Prize awarded in 1995. They also study the formation of organs, of the nervous system and how sex is determined. They have also discovered the process of aging and how cell death can be programmed to shape an organism (Nobel 2002). Developmental biologists were also the first to clone animals. They have discovered microRNAs (that led to the Lasker award in 2008) and have analyzed the major signaling pathways whose mis-regulation leads to cancer. Developmental biologists have also developed important technological advances, from genome manipulation (Nobel 2007) to RNAi (Nobel 2006) and in vivo imaging using fluorescent proteins (Nobel 2008). They have provided the foundations for stem cell biology and tissue engineering and have created the context to understand human birth defects and disease. The impact of the field is a result of the study of whole organisms (rather than isolated cells) using a wide variety of technological and intellectual approaches. As these studies expand into new areas such as tissue regeneration and systems biology, major contributions can be expected in the coming years. Developmental Biology is thus a core discipline of the Life Sciences and is transforming the Medical Sciences. Over 120 developmental biologists will meet on June 21-26 at the Gordon Research Conference to discuss recent progress in the field and exchange ideas. The conference will include minorities and a large proportion of women that reflects their high representation in the field. Emphasis was given to inviting a number of young speakers and to avoid repeats of previous conferences held in the same field.