Funds are requested to partially support the 2008 Biopolymers Gordon Research Conference. This is a long established and usually oversubscribed meeting that serves the scientific community focused on the fundamental properties of biopolymers (proteins, RNA, DNA), including their structure, folding, dynamics, stability, and interactions. The 2008 Biopolymers GRC is particularly interested in supporting the participation of minorities and women. The broad and long term goal of the conference is to increase our understanding of fundamental properties of biopolymers as related to their biological function.
The specific aims of this meeting will be to convene leaders in the field with students, post-docs and juniors scientist in a five day conference that will discuss current state and future directions of research efforts in biopolymers. The significance of this application is that the Biopolymers GRC is uniquely poised to foster connections between chemistry, chemical engineering, physics and biology. Such regular interdisciplinary meeting of scientists working in the areas of experimental and theoretical understanding of biopolymers is needed so that results and ideas can be exchanged, compared, discussed, and synthesized. Most importantly, the Gordon Conference format fosters new connections between different fields by providing ample time for discussion and informal interaction between participants. Furthermore, the research discussions and informal interactions of the Biopolymers GRC should directly benefit biomedical research across diverse fields. In choosing topics and speakers for the 2008 meeting, input was sought from the members of science community. The organizers have also incorporated suggestions offered in response to the 2006 program. In addition to two keynote sessions, the 2008 schedule includes the following regular sessions: 1. Dynamic Properties of Biopolymers; 2. Protein-Nucleic Acid Interactions; 3. Small Nucleic Acids; 4. Ribosome and Co-translational Folding; 5. Electrostatic Interactions in Biopolymers; 6. Biopolymers at High Pressure; 7. Protein Folding and Design. ? ? ?
