This application requests partial funding for a summer research conference entitled """"""""Recent Advances in Glucose Transporter Biology"""""""" to be held under the auspices of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) from July 8 to 13, 1995, at Snowmass, Colorado. This will be the second international conference devoted exclusively to the subject of glucose transport.
The aim of the conference is to bring together a large group of international experts to discuss various aspects of glucose transport, including the importance of transport in understanding normal organismal glucose homeostasis and its disruption in diseases such as diabetes mellitus. The conference will be limited to 150 participants with clinical or basic science backgrounds chosen on the basis of their expertise and interests. There will be eight major scientific sessions, each with 3-4 major presentations and 2-4 shorter talks. There will also be a keynote speaker and four poster sessions. The latter will allow junior participants the opportunity to present and discuss their data with experts in the field. The specific topics to be discussed include 1) glucose metabolism, as studied using transgenic models; 2) glucose metabolism and the pathophysiology of human metabolic disease; 3) structure/function relationships of the glucose transport proteins; 4) tissue-specific adaptations of hexose transport systems; 5) insulin- regulated glucose transport: the role of subcellular membrane protein trafficking; 6) insulin-regulated glucose transport: signal transduction pathways; 7) related transporters; 8) hexose metabolism in muscle and adipose cells. The topics of controversy, uncertainty, and agreement within each of these areas will be defined and discussed. The conference will provide a unique opportunity for interaction between basic scientists interested in glucose and the related transporters and clinicians interested in the possible role of these molecules in various metabolic disorders. The interactive environment should stimulate collaborative research efforts among participants and help to identify and set future goals for research on the glucose transporters.
