This Americas Program award will support travel and related expenses for one senior and two junior researchers, to participate in a joint workshop on plant cell biology and signal transduction, to take place in Santiago, Chile on Nov. 13-16. Organizers are Dr. Marteen Chrispeels, University of California, San Diego and Dr. Ariel Orellana, University of Chile. The main objective is to bring Chilean researchers and their students in contact with US counterparts who have similar research goals with the purpose of discussing joint research projects. A secondary goal is to strengthen the plant cell community in Chile and to expose their students to the rapidly advancing frontier in signal transduction in plant cells. The workshop will consist of a series of lectures by both Chilean and US scientists, and discussions on how common interests can best be pursued The discussions will focus on very important current topics in plant cell biology, such as the role of the Golgi in biosynthesis and sorting, the role of potassium channels in signal transduction, and signal transduction in the disease and stress responses.
Both countries will profit from this activity. It will strengthen collaborative efforts between scientists of the two countries and stimulate interest among promising Chilean graduate students in cutting-edge plant cell biology. ***
