This proposal is to request support for a Keystone Symposia meeting entitled """"""""Protein Dynamics, Allostery and Function"""""""", organized by Ivet Bahar and Lila M. Gierasch, which will be held in Keystone, Colorado from June 5 - 10, 2009. With recent progress in exploring biomolecular systems dynamics, an emerging view is that of the """"""""intrinsic ability"""""""" of biomolecular systems to populate an ensemble of fluctuating conformations or alternative states which include, in particular, the functional forms stabilized upon ligand/substrate binding or protein-protein interactions. Allosteric changes in conformations and their impact on signal transduction mechanisms thus emerge as properties encoded by the structure and energy landscape, which are evolutionarily selected due to their functional predisposition. Of particular interest is to elucidate the mechanisms of information flow, not only at the level of residue interactions but also between the components of biomolecular machines or cell signaling networks. This Keystone Symposia meeting will provide a forum for researchers from diverse fields to explore and critically discuss the basic principles underlying allosteric responses at the molecular level, and their higher (cellular) level consequences and to exchange expertise on methods to illuminate key dynamic properties of biomolecular systems. Public Health Relevance: This meeting is directed towards fundamental understanding of how the dynamic nature of biomolecules relates to their mechanisms, using both computational and experimental approaches. This question underlies the structure-function relationships of all biological processes from enzyme function to signal transduction. While our meeting speaks especially to the fundamental aspects, one of the outcomes is to help the design of small molecules that can modulate dynamics and therefore biological function.
This meeting is directed towards fundamental understanding of how the dynamic nature of biomolecules relates to their mechanisms, using both computational and experimental approaches. This question underlies the structure-function relationships of all biological processes from enzyme function to signal transduction. While our meeting speaks especially to the fundamental aspects, one of the outcomes is to help the design of small molecules that can modulate dynamics and therefore biological function.
