Funds are requested to support travel of participants to the Metals in Biology Gordon Conferences and to the Graduate Research Seminars in bioinorganic chemistry to be held in January 2001, 2002 and 2003, at the Sheraton Four Points Harbortown Hotel, Ventura, CA. The Metals in Biology GRC is generally considered to be the premiere small meeting covering the fields of metallobiochemistry and bioinorganic chemistry. Since 1962, these meetings have been a regular forum for the presentation and discussion of forefront research covering all aspects of the roles of metal ions in biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology and medicine. The popularity of this meeting led to a change from biennial to an annual calendar starting in January, 1987. Despite the greater frequency the conference remains greatly oversubscribed, severely curtailing the number of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in attendance. As a result, in 1996, the Gordon research committee established the Graduate Research Seminar. This conference is devoted to graduate students and postdoctorals in the field, who come together to present lectures and scientific poster presentations in a three-day meeting. There is an important session scheduled for Thursday evening to overlap with the MIB-GRC, including dinner, a keynote lecturer from the MIIB-GRC (for 2001 this speaker will be Richard H. Holm), and a joint poster session with presentations from the GRS attendees. The topics to be emphasized for the 2001 MIB-GRC conference include: (1) Coupled Electron Transfer; (2) Metalloenzyme Mechanism; (3) Metalloregulatory Proteins and DNA Interactions; (4) Metals in Medicine; (5) Metal Uptake and Chaperones;(6) Active Site Assembly; and (7) Metalloenzymes in Metabolism. The program for the 2001 GRS will include sessions on: (1) Synthetic Active-Site Mimics; (2) Spectroscopy of Metals in Biology; (3) The Role of Metals in Medicine and Nucleic Acids; (4) Metalloprotein Structure and Function; and (5) Metal Regulation, Storage and Transport in Biology. The conference plays a key role in encouraging new enterprises in biomedical research by facilitating many interdisciplinary interactions which occur in this field. To ensure the best possible programs, it is important that the cost of participating in the conference not be an impediment to the attendance of the invited speakers and discussion chairs.
