International School of Biophysics: Transporters and Channels

描述（由申请人提供）：我们要求支持将于2005年5月31日至6月6日在西西里岛的Erice举行的关于“转运体和通道”主题的国际生物物理学院，并于2008年夏天在美国举行关于同一主题的延续会议。2005年的会议是2002年在伦敦举行的会议的续作，因此我们寻求对该系列的第二和第三所学校的支持。类似的会议往往集中在转运体或通道上，很少有两个学科之间的相互影响。然而，这种二分法正在迅速改变，最近一次关于离子通道的戈登会议包括了一个关于转运体的会议。其他转运会议已经包括并可能包括atp酶和ABC转运蛋白以及共转运蛋白。除了本系列的第一次会议外，没有其他会议专门关注共转运体和离子通道之间的结构、机制和功能关系。共转运体对许多细胞功能至关重要，包括突触传递、神经递质的合成、代谢物和营养物质的运输，以及几乎每个细胞过程中都存在的离子通道。三个发现有助于弥合这些看似不同的领域之间的差距：(1)现在有充分的证据表明，点突变可以将通道转化为共转运体或共转运体转化为通道；(2)共转运体可以产生具有生理后果的可观的离子电流；(3)共转运体和离子选择通道的结构允许对结构和机制进行比较分析。我们提议的系列会议还有一个独特之处，那就是它是一所学校，而不是严格意义上的研究会议。因此，我们包括教学讲座与更高级的主题。我们邀请来自离子通道和转运体社区的领导者来授课和演讲，我们始终强调定量方法。本着这种精神，我们接受来自不同领域的参与者，以便进行信息交流，并使这两个重要学科相互促进。该计划将涵盖以下主题：配体和电压门控离子通道，na偶联神经递质转运体，H偶联神经递质和营养转运体，H偶联Cl-转运体，K+通道，H+通道，Ca++通道，Cl-通道，以及通道和转运体的最新晶体结构。该计划还包括膜片钳、电流计和荧光成像的研讨会。会议汇集了来自生物化学、生物物理学、细胞与分子生物学、分子药理学、结构生物学和遗传学的科学家和学生，将包括2场全体会议、26场定期会议、3场演示和海报会议。我们计划在会议前邀请一位晚邀的TBA演讲者，利用最新的发现，重点是人类疾病。目前列出的所有演讲者都致力于参加并为研究生，博士后研究员，学者和关注妇女和代表性不足群体的制药研究人员的不同听众准备教学讲座和研究研讨会。为了与生物物理学院的传统保持一致，将有充足的时间进行非正式讨论，这可以导致刺激和富有成效的互动，以及参与者未来的联系。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We are requesting support for an International School of Biophysics on the topic of "Transporters and Channels" to be held in Erice, Sicily from May 31 to 6 June 2005, and a continuation conference on the same topic to be held in the US during the summer of 2008. The 2005 meeting is a sequel to one held in Erice in 2002, and we thus seek support for the second and third school in this series. Similar conferences have tended to focus on either transporters or channels, with little crosstalk between the two disciplines. This dichotomy is rapidly changing, however, and the latest Gordon Conference on ion channels included a session on transporters. Other transport conferences have included and are likely to include ATPases and ABC transporters along with co-transporters. No conference except the first in this series has paid exclusive attention to the structural, mechanistic, and functional relationship between co-transporters and ion channels. Co-transporters are crucial for many cell functions, including synaptic transmission, the synthesis of neurotransmitters, and the transport of metabolites and nutrients, and ion channels feature in virtually every cell process. Three discoveries have helped bridge the gap between these seemingly disparate fields: (1) It is now well documented that point mutations can convert channels into co-transporters or co-transporters into channels, (2) co- transporters can generate appreciable ionic currents with physiological consequences, and (3) structures of co- transporters and ion-selective channels have allowed a comparative analysis of structure and mechanism. The series that we propose has the further unique feature of being a school rather than strictly a research conference. Thus, we include didactic lectures alongside more advanced topics. We invite leaders from both the ion channel and transporter communities to teach and to lecture, and we emphasize quantitative approaches throughout. In this vein, we accept participants from diverse fields with the view to information exchange and to cross-fertilize these two important disciplines. The program will cover the following topics: ligand- and voltage-gated ion channels, Na-coupled neurotransmitter transporters, H-coupled neurotransmitter and nutrient transporters, H-coupled Cl- transporters, K+ channels, H+ channels, Ca++ channels, Cl- channels, as well as the most recent crystallographic structures of channels and transporters. The program also includes workshops on patch clamp, amperometry, and fluorescent imaging. The meeting brings together scientists and students from biochemistry, biophysics, cell and molecular biology, molecular pharmacology, structural biology and genetics and will consist of 2 plenary talks, 26 regular talks, 3 demonstrations, and poster sessions. We plan a late-invitation TBA speaker to take advantage of the latest discoveries just before the meeting, and with a focus on human disease. All speakers presently listed are committed to attend and to prepare didactic lectures as well as research seminars for a diverse audience of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, academics, and pharmaceutical researchers with attention to women and under-represented groups. In keeping with the Erice School of Biophysics tradition, there will ample time for informal discussions that can result in stimulating and productive interactions as well as future contacts for the participants.