This application seeks partial support for the Eighth Gordon Conferences on Proteoglycans schedule for July 5-9, 1998 at Proctor Academy in Andover, New Hampshire. The previous conference was held July 7-12, 1996, at the same site. More than 200 applications were received, from which 151 registered participants were selected for a full capacity conference. All seven conferences to data have been over-subscribed. The 1996 conference was rated by attendees and Gordon Conference staff as outstanding and well above average. The Gordon Conference on Proteoglycans is the main venue for presentation and discussion of current and future directions in the proteoglycan field, and consistently leads to new insights, new interactions, new collaborations, and new research directions. In planning the Eighth Conference on Proteoglycans, attempts will be made to build on the successful tradition of previous conferences. The conference will take a broad approach to the structure, metabolism, molecular and biological functions, and pathology of this important class of macromolecules. This year will have a heavy emphasis on genetic systems for studying proteoglycans in normal and pathophysiology. In addition, some of the speakers will be selected to describe novel systems that might impact future research on proteoglycans (e.g., response to shear stress and non-mammalian genetic systems). The sessions will focus initially on new developments relating to fundamental aspects of structure and metabolism. These will be followed by sessions on the proteoglycan interactions with various ligands that lead to signaling events, and normal and pathologic cell adhesion. Other sessions will focus on the role of proteoglycans in cardiovascular biology and developmental biology, with special emphasis on the use of gene eviction methods to study the function of proteoglycans in normal and pathologic conditions. A final session will consider the critical area of use and manipulation of proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans as therapeutics, with input from scientists in the private sector. Since proteoglycans are important in a wide range of biological and pathological systems, this multi-disciplinary approach should appeal to a broad spectrum of investigators.
