This application is submitted by the organizers of the 1994 March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation Clinical Genetics Conference entitled """"""""Genes in Development and Cancer."""""""" The meeting is to be held at the Hyatt Orlando Hotel in Kissimmee, Florida on March 13-15, 1994. Funds are requested to defray the housing and travel costs of 20 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior investigators so they can attend this conference as active participants. Developmental aspects of the conference will include embryology, mouse/human homologies, Waardenburg syndrome, neural tube defects, neuronal migration defects, holoprosencephaly, limb abnormalities, hearing/deafness, and situs inversus. Cancer aspects of the conference will include Wilms tumor, Beckwith syndrome, p53 oncogene, cancer families, retinoblastoma, colon cancer, breast cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia, neurofibromatosis, basal cell nevus syndrome, von Hippel-Lindau/renal carcinoma, DNA repair defects, and other topics. The conference will bring together investigators in a variety of basic and clinical sciences including molecular biology, cellular biology, embryology, developmental biology, cancer biology, clinical genetics, birth defects, and dysmorphology. The format includes 20-25 invited speakers, eight platform presentations selected from submitted abstracts, poster sessions, a round table on genetic counseling for cancer, and a session on contributed cases and diagnostic dilemmas. An audience of 300- 600 is anticipated with mechanisms to encourage extensive interaction among the attendees. There will be presentation of exciting new cell and molecular developments, but the planners of the conference have taken steps to assure the clinical relevance of presentations. Based on the previous experience of these annual meetings over the past 22 years, participation of young investigators in the 1994 conference will contribute significantly to the development of productive collaborations in the years to come. The three coorganizers with help from the other members of the Advisory Committee will evaluate written applications for travel support and will distribute funds on a competitive basis. The criteria for selecting travel award grantees include submission of an abstract of high quality original research, selection of the research for presentation, and financial need.
