In this proposal funds were requested for a Gordon Conference on fibronectin held January 7-11, 1985. This conference was the third in a series which started as a New York Academy of Sciences Conference in 1977 and was followed by the first Gordon Conference on this topic in 1982. An extraordinary amount of work is being done on fibronectin because it is thought to play a role in a wide variety of phenomena including cellular adhesion, invasion of malignant cells, connective tissue organization, blood clotting, phagocytosis, and attachment of bacteria to tissues. The important role of fibronectin in cell biology research as a prototype of an adhesive protein, the fast pace of the work on this protein, and the fact that fibronectin is relevant to so many different fields fundamental to biology and medicine makes it important to bring together those who are working on the various aspects of this protein so that current information can be rapidly disseminated. The purpose of the Gordon Conference was to accomplish this. (T)
