This is an application for partial funding for a FASEB Summer Research Conference on """"""""Nutrients and Gene Expression in Carcinogenesis. The Conference, under the auspices of the Federation of the American Societies of Experimental Biology will be held July 30-August 4, 1989, in Copper Mountain, CO. The format will be the same as used by the Gordon Research Conferences. A dietary deficiency of calories or virtually any one of the 50 essential nutrients depresses growth in animals suggesting that all nutrients participate in gene expression. Oncogenes with established importance in carcinogenesis and their expression varies with dietary manipulations in animals. Increasing the intake of the total diet or specific nutrients can enhance cell proliferation now recognized as a precancerous event in cancers of man or in animals given cancer producing agents. Available evidence is sufficient for meaningful exchange of ideas between cancer investigators, nutritional scientists and molecular biologists to foster the application of techniques from all three fields to the problems of cancer initiation, development, and diagnosis. This conference would develop a better understanding of the intracellular mechanisms whereby nutrients regulate gene expression during evolution of neoplasia. Coverage will focus upon control mechanisms at the cell and molecular level in human and animal cells. The meeting is designed to include formal slide presentations, informal poster sessions, group discussions, and individual interactions during meals and breaks. The chairperson of each session will give an introductory talk, with historical background, and discuss current problems conference acquaint participants with the topics of the session. It is expected that the will summarize current understanding about the role of nutrients in the coordinated control of genes or groups of genes and their expression in tissues during the development of cancer. It will emphasize critically designed molecular, metabolic, and nutritional approaches to the characterization of the role of nutrients in carcinogenesis. It will lead to the dissemination of new information, concepts, and methodologies in clinical cancer and related fields. Finally the conference should stimulate new efforts and collaboration in these related fields with development of new strategies for future research.
