The Gordon Research Conference on the Cell and Molecular Biology of Bones and Teeth is now in its 44th year. The Conference has a distinguished history as a proving ground for new ideas in the field of skeletal research and the study of calciotropic hormones. The Conference is unique in the breadth and depth of its coverage of new developments in the physiology and molecular biology of cartilage, bones, and teeth. Also unique in the Gordon Research Conference format is the unusually extensive opportunity for open, free, and informal discussion, discussion which brings together international leaders in the field, young investigators, post-doctoral fellows and students. These characteristics of the Gordon Conference are attributable to their limited size, geographical isolation, and overall structure. The 1999 Conference will focus exclusively on areas in which important new developments have occurred within the past year. It will include sessions on: osteoclast differentiation, featuring recent developments in the biology of the osteoprotogerin ligand receptor family; osteoclast signaling, featuring recent advances in understanding the osteoclast defect that results from knockout of the SRC oncogene; transcriptional regulation of the osteoblast phenotype; and the molecular basis of signaling by the parathyroid hormone receptor. The Conference will also include sessions on the role of matrix metalloproteinases in bone and cartilage; the developmental biology of bone and cartilage; mechanisms of bone loss in osteoporosis; and craniofacial hard tissue morphogenesis. The discussion leaders and speakers are among the finest investigators in the international community of bone biologists. The purpose of this proposal is to request funds to partially defray the costs of speakers' transportation and subsistence. These funds, if granted will aid immeasurably in allowing the Gordon Research Conference to fulfill its function to stimulate further creativity in bone and cartilage and tooth research.
