Gordon Research Sponsored Conference on Cobalamins

描述（由申请人提供）： 该提案要求支持戈登研究所赞助的钴会议，该会议将于2003年7月6日至11日在缅因州沃特维尔的科尔比学院举行。钴胺素的研究领域一直在经历一个复兴和重要的见解复杂的转运蛋白和酶的结构和功能，利用辅因子的影响自由基或异源裂解化学为基础的转换已经出现在过去的十年。对钴胺素生物合成的研究表明，它是任何已知的代谢途径中最复杂的，需要超过30种酶才能完全从头合成。更复杂的是，这种生物合成有有氧和厌氧两种形式，为进化生物学家探索其早期生物起源提供了丰富的自然资源。此外，生物信息学方法的应用已经导致发现参与钴胺素代谢的致病基因和鉴定致病突变。流行病学研究指出，钴胺素和同型半胱氨酸水平之间存在负相关，后者在升高时是心血管疾病、神经管缺陷和阿尔茨海默病的独立危险因素。 钴会议将汇集临床医生，生物学家和化学家在该领域的各个方面工作，并提供一个讨论和自由交流思想的场所。通过将具有光谱方法，膜蛋白，小鼠遗传学和计算化学专业知识的研究人员与能够获得患者细胞系的医生相结合，预计会议将刺激合作并促进科学进步。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal requests support for a Gordon Research sponsored Conference on Cobalamins to be held between Jul 6-11, 2003 at Colby College, Waterville in Maine. The field of cobalamin research has been experiencing a renaissance and important insights into the structures and functions of complex transporters and of enzymes that utilize the cofactor to effect radical or heterolytic chemistry-based transformations have been emerging over the past decade. Investigations into the biosynthesis of cobalamin have revealed that it is the most complex of any known metabolic pathway requiring in excess of thirty enzymes for its complete de novo synthesis. To complicate things further, there are both aerobic and anaerobic versions of this biosynthesis, providing a rich natural resource for evolutionary biologists to probe its early biotic origins. In addition, application of bioinformatic approaches have led to the discovery of disease-causing genes involved in cobalamin metabolism and to the identification of pathogenic mutations. Epidemiolgical studies point to an inverse correlation between cobalamin and homocysteine levels, the latter when elevated, is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, neural tube defects and Alzheimer's disease. The conference on Cobalamins will bring together, clinicians, biologists and chemists working on varied aspects of the field and provide a venue for discourse and free exchange of ideas. By combining investigators with expertise in spectroscopic methods, membrane proteins, mouse genetics and computational chemistry together with physicians with access to patient cell lines, it is expected that the meeting will stimulate collaborations and catalyze scientific progress.