Partial support is requested for a FASEB and EMBO-sponsored conference on Intracellular RNA Transport and Localized Translation. The major goals of this meeting are to help foster scientific exchange and stimulate progress in what are widely regarded as critical processes of gene regulation. RNA trafficking and translational control are major influences on such important biological phenomena as neuronal synapse growth and plasticity, embryonic differentiation and formation of the body plan, and the generation of cellular asymmetry. On a larger level, RNA transport and local translation are centrally important for neurobiology, developmental biology, and cell biology, among other disciplines. Recent work indicates that the mechanisms of RNA transport and translation are used by many organisms at different stages of their life cycles. Thus, this meeting will attract a wide variety of investigators who, while working on diverse systems and areas of scientific inquiry, have the common interest of determining how mRNAs are transported to particular subcellular locations and how their translation is controlled. The conference will emphasize the mechanisms and molecules that regulate RNA transport and local translation; the subjects will range from x-ray crystallography to in vivo imaging of molecules in transit. The conference will also include presentations on the biochemical control of mRNA translation by RNA binding proteins and micro RNAs. The cross-disciplinary nature of this meeting will be attractive to molecular, cellular, developmental, and neurobiological scientists. ? ? ? ?
