The purpose of this proposal is to generate funds to support travel, registration and subsistence for participants in the 5th Gordon Research Conference on Intermediate Filaments, which will be held July 12-17, 1998 at the Holderness School, Plymouth, New Hampshire, U.S.A. Intermediate filaments (IFs) are prominent components of the cytoskeleton of higher eukaryotic cells. In vertebrates there are over 40 different IF subunit protein (IFP) genes, which are expressed in a cell-type specific manner. It is now clear that defects in IF organization are the direct cause of, and may contribute to a wide range of human diseases including neurodegenerative diseases, myopathies, cardiomyopathies, and diseases of the epidermis and liver. This realization has re-energized the community of scientists studying IFs. The Gordon Research Conference on Intermediate Filaments is the only regular meeting devoted to IF biology and it brings together an international cast of participants, including basic scientists and clinicians, well established figures and younger scientists with the goal of facilitating an exchange of the latest ideas, observations and reagents. The major themes of the 1998 IF Gordon Conference will be: 1) Evolution and structure of IFs, 2)Assembly, transport and phosphorylation of neuronal IFs, 3) Regulation and functions of the major IFPs, 4) Keratins in skin disorders and in cancer, 5) Neurofilaments in neurodegenerative diseases, 6) Interactions of IFs with other cellular components and with the plasma membrane.
