Funding is requested to support an annual symposium series that has a ten-year history of excellence. The series topic is """"""""Growth Factors and Signal Transduction"""""""". Previous symposia have dealt with the biology and physiology of a specific growth factor family or with a particular cellular or physiological event that involves growth factors. The next symposium entitled Tissue Remodeling will be held September 13 through 16, 2001. This symposium is a timely plan to gather together the major contributors to this field. The invited speakers will present lectures 40 min in length with five minutes for discussion. Other participants will make 15-minute oral presentations of their work (with five minutes for discussion) or will present in a poster session. Frequent breaks and other opportunities for discussion are planned. The results of evaluations from the past 10 symposia of this series (nine of which were organized by the Principal Investigator) show that most previous participants have rated the opportunities for discussion and the intellectual stimuli from these symposia as excellent. The number of participants is relatively small (120-150) and this fosters ready interactions in a friendly atmosphere. An important aspect of this symposium series is that it brings together investigators who are studying various aspects of growth factor biology and signal transduction. As has happened in past symposia, we also expect future symposia to promote exchanges of new ideas and the initiation of new collaborations.
