The proposed conference on Muscle:Excitation-Contraction (E-C) Coupling is scheduled for July 3-8,1994, at Tilton School, New Hampshire, under the sponsorship of the Gordon Research Conferences. The last conference on this subject was held in 1991. The timing of the current conference is particularly appropriate in view of the recent convergence of physiological, biophysical, and molecular biological approaches in determining the molecular properties of the components of E-C coupling, their assembly and regulation in muscle as well as nonmuscle tissues. Themes to be developed include the following: Ca2+ homeostasis and plasmalemmal ion permeability in normal muscle and muscle diseases; structure and regulatory mechanisms of the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ pump; structure and assembly of E-C coupling components; voltage control of Ca2+ release in skeletal muscle; regulation of Ca2+ release by putative endogenous Ca2+ mobilizing agents (Ca2+, lP3, cyclic ADP-ribose, etc.) in muscle and nonmuscle preparations; application of modern imaging techniques to the measurement of intracellular [Ca2+] in muscle and non muscle cells; and molecular approaches to studying structure-function relations of dihydropyridine, ryanodine and lP3 receptor/Ca2+ channels. Oral presentations of posters by young investigators will take place at the end of each session. The conference will be divided into nine sessions with scheduled session leaders, speakers and discussants, poster sessions and discussion time. The Gordon Conference's on E-C coupling have a highly successful history of bringing together active investigators from all over the world in a format which encourages free and informal exchange of ideas and unpublished data. The open discussion of ongoing work is valuable at this time in the E-C coupling field because recent advances have opened up new avenues of investigation. No other conference bringing together such a wide range of expertise in this area of research is planned in the near future.
