Support is provided for the symposium and workshop: "Extremophile Research: Theory and Techniques" under the auspices of George Mason University's Institute for Bioscience, Bioinformatics, and Biotechnology and the Center of Marine Biotechnology (COMB), University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute. The four-day course is being held at COMB facilities at the Columbus Center, Baltimore, MD, during the summer of 1999. "Extremophile Research: Theory and Techniques" includes a one-day symposium and a three-day intensive laboratory workshop. The symposium brings experts from various areas of extremophile research to discuss the current state of knowledge on growth, biochemistry and genetics of extremely anaerobic methanogens, hyperthermophiles and extreme halophiles. The laboratory sessions include lectures and blocks of demonstration and hands-on experiments focussing on specialized techniques used to study these groups of organisms. Support is being provided for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty from small colleges and universities. Participation in this course should increase the number of researchers studying microbes with unusual growth properties, some of which contain genes for enzymes and products of application to biotechnology.
