The Fifth Gordon Conference on Molecular Mechanisms of Microbial Adhesion and Signalling will be held June 25 - 30, 1995 at Salve Regina College in Newport, Rhode Island. The Conference will consider the latest scientific developments in the structure, physical functions and gene regulation of microbial adhesins, new technologies to screen for receptors, the chemical signalling traffic between pathogen and infected tissue, and finally, the translation of this information into new therapeutic avenues applicable to interfacing with emerging biotechnology companies. Surface structures of bacteria that participate in adhesion have been defined by the four preceding Gordon conferences on adhesion (lipoteichoic acids, teichoic acids, peptidoglycan, capsules, lipopolysaccharides, pili or fimbriae, flagella and an array of surface proteins). The focus of this fifth conference will be to advance this structural knowledge into the dynamic setting of cell-cell signalling. This scenrio will be examined at the level of communication between two bacteria (as in DNA transformation) and between bacteria and host cell (as in infection). We will consider how synthesis and placement of adhesins are regulated, how the microbe sends out signals that cause the target cell to display receptors and to actively take part in the adhesive interaction which in some cases is followed by invasion of the microbe into the eukaryotic cell. Since adhesion precedes the appearance of symptoms of infection, an understanding of the precise sequence of molecular events from bacterial contact with the target cell through signal transduction into the host cell, to production of a host cell inflammatory response provides many opportunities for interrupting infection either with vaccines or therapeutics. An major aim of this conference will be to tease out these possible links to therapeutics. The overall plan for the conference is to seek the involvement of the world's experts on all facets of microbial adhesion both from academia and from the newly emerging biotechnology companies implementing knowledge in this field. Discussions of molecular signalling events in disease will be complemented with sessions on adherence in the environment, plant-microbe interactions leading to nitrogen fixation by Rhizobium species on leguminous plants, and signals for adsorption and uptake of DNA. Foreign scientists have made significant contributions to the science that is the subject of this conference. Funds are requested for travel of 5 young scientists. We are also requesting partial financial support for 20 graduate students and postdoctoral investigators, colleagues whose participation we deem to be highly desirable. Based on the interest and importance of the topics to be presented, we anticipate that this will be an oversubscribed Gordon Conference.
