Partial support is requested for travel and registration for speakers and session chairpersons at the 7th Gordon Research Conference on Drug Carriers in Biology and Medicine. This is an international conference to be held at Plymouth State College (South) in Plymouth, New Hampshire from July 9 to 13, 1990. It is anticipated that the conference will comprise approximately 150 participants, about 33 of whom will be invited speakers or chairpersons. The participants will be drawn from a wide spectrum of university, government, industrial, and non-profit institutions. Discussions will cover several classes of carriers being developed for medical delivery of drugs. Included are the particulates (liposomes, polymers) and macromolecules (antibodies, other proteins, nucleic acids, peptides). Recent advances in the technology and medical applications will be covered, but the focus will be on basic biological, chemical, and physical issues germane to all of the types of carriers. Particularly emphasized will be the current and future possibilities for the rational design and molecular biological generation of carriers and carried drugs. Disease entities of many types have been approached using drug carrier technologies, prominent among them being cancers (both solid and hematogenous), infectious diseases (including AIDS), central nervous system disorders, and hereditary enzyme deficiencies.
