This is an application for partial support of the Signaling by Adhesion Receptors Gordon Research Conference and the associated Gordon Research Seminar in 2014. It will be the 8th meeting of this premier conference and the second meeting of the GRS, and will be held at Bates College, Lewiston, ME from June 21-27. The conference has historically provided a unique forum to bring together an international group of early career and senior scientists with a common interest in the mechanisms of adhesion signaling and their relevance to development and disease, and this upcoming conference is no exception. Collaborations are established, new scientists are recruited to the field, and major discoveries about adhesion signaling are often reported for the first time at this conference.
Specific Aims for the conference: """""""" To disseminate new data and concepts about adhesion signaling. """""""" To promote interactions and collaborations among basic research groups, clinical research groups, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. """""""" To familiarize investigators with new experimental approaches and emerging technologies. """""""" To provide and informal atmosphere for discussion of new hypotheses and approaches. """""""" To provide a collegial, interactive atmosphere in which both junior and senior investigators may interact. """""""" To increase the number and diversity of students and fellows attending the conference, with a particular focus on women, minorities and persons with disabilities. The 2014 program will focus on new unpublished findings on adhesion signaling in all of the most actively researched topic areas. Importantly, few aspects of the traditional program in the conference have been retained, and new and emerging areas introduced to bolster interest, increase applicants for the conference, ensure enthusiasm throughout the week, and promote major advancements in the field. Importantly, each session will feature one or two talks from graduate students, postdoctoral research associates or early career investigators. These speakers will be selected from submitted abstracts to create opportunities for discussion of late-breaking discoveries and incorporate exciting posters as oral presentations. In addition, two speakers will be selected in competition from the GRS that is to be held in conjunction with the main conference. New topics relative to last year's conference include spatial control of adhesion signaling, cellular niches and tissue architecture, adhesion control of cell division and polarity, and tumor cell invasion and adhesion signaling therapies. Updates on important topics such as tension sensing and signaling, cytoskeletal regulation, mechanisms of migration, and in vivo models of adhesion signaling in development are also included. Overall this international conference will showcase the major advances in the field of adhesion signaling research and will be, as it has always been, the seminal conference in the field.
This application requests support for the 2014 Signaling by Adhesion Receptors Gordon Research Conference and associated Gordon Research Seminar. These biennial conferences provide a unique forum for interaction of principal investigators, graduate students and postdoctoral research associates with common interests in the mechanisms whereby adhesion controls global cell function and multicellular life. Major discoveries in the basic biology and disease etiology and pathogenesis involving adhesion signaling are often reported for the first time at this conference.
