Funds are requested to cover partial support for the 2006 FASEB Conference on Calcium and Cell Function, to be held in Snowmass, Colorado. Calcium is a critical second messenger, which is essential for processes ranging from nervous and immune system development and function to fertility, neurotransmitter release, sensory transduction and cell migration. Accordingly, defects in calcium signaling are associated with a host of diseases affecting excitable and non-excitable cells. The goal of this conference, which is held every two years, is to provide a forum for leading scientists from a diversity of fields to present and discuss the latest and most exciting developments in the calcium field. We have aimed to attract many scientists who have not participated in previous conferences on calcium signaling, despite the relevance of their work to the topic of the meeting. In particular, many scientists who work on sensory transduction, neuronal development, neurophysiology and synaptic transmission have not attended past meetings due to a former emphasis on non-excitable cells. We expect the mix of participants working with both excitable and non-excitable cells, combined with the informal setting and relatively modest size of the meeting (maximum of 165 participants), will generate lively discussions and new interactions among scientists who do not ordinarily attend the same conferences. The meeting will include nine sessions with oral presentations, one keynote address, and four poster session covering topics that will include the roles of calcium in regulating gene transcription, development and disease, neuronal exocytosis, sensory signaling, and cell migration, as well as molecular mechanisms of calcium release and influx, and calcium signaling specificity. These topics are of fundamental importance and are relevant to understanding the bases of numerous diseases, including neurodegeneration; developmental defects in the nervous and immune systems; communicative, sensory and cognitive disorders; kidney and cardiovascular disease; immunodeficiencies and autoimmunity; and cancer. ? ? ?
