This application requests funds to support the 2017 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Cell Contact & Adhesion (CC&A, subtitled: Cell contact as a master regulator of membrane organization, mechanics and signaling) and the associated Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from June 17-18, both at Proctor Academy, Andover, NH. The meeting has been held biannually since 1973 and is anchored by an internationally recognized group of investigators who have led both scientific progress and the training/mentoring pipeline of young scientists in the field. In work often presented in unpublished form at the CC&A GRC by leaders in the field, the CC&A community has driven an appreciation of the complex and dynamic nature of cell contacts and their central role in guiding many cellular behaviors such as polarity, signaling and mechanics and in driving human disease, particularly cancer. Indeed, both the Chair and Vice-chair of the 2017 meeting are cancer biologists who have contributed to our understanding of the role of cell contact in proliferation and metastasis. The goal of the 2017 meeting is to bring CC&A science and community together by: 1) Delivering a program that introduces cutting- edge technologies, tools and ideas in the context of a ?bottom-up? view of cell contacts and their central role in guiding many cell behaviors in normal and diseased tissues, and; 2) Creating a framework for working as a community to define scientific challenges and needs, and to facilitate trainee mentoring and career development.
It is increasingly appreciated that alterations in cell-cell communication drive the development of many human diseases including skin disorders, dilated cardiomyopathy, asthma and, especially, cancer development and metastasis. The 2017 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Cell Contact and Adhesion (Subtitled: Cell contact as a master regulator of membrane organization, mechanics and signaling), together with the pre- meeting Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) will bring together leaders in the field, early stage investigators, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to share their most recent findings. The scientific and social themes of the 2017 meeting seek to build unity in both the science of cell contacts and the CC&A community.
