This grant will support the biannual FASEB Summer Conference on Ion Channel Regulation, June, 2005 at Snowmass Village, Colorado. The mission of this international multidisciplinary meeting is to expands the ion channel field, and bring together investigators from medicine, physiology, biophysics, biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, neuroscience and cardiovascular fields. Recent scientific advances made it now possible to address complex interactions of channels with different signaling cascades, which all together determine biological functions of cells, tissues and organs. This scientifically excellent and innovative meeting brings together 90 investigators from different fields, and creates an environment that permits free interdisciplinary exchange of information and ideas via oral presentations, posters and close informal interactions and conversations between senior and junior investigators. Special attention will be paid to recruit junior investigators (new PI's, outstanding postdoctoral and senior graduate fellows), women and other under-represented groups to actively participate in this meeting. Support from NSF will be used to provide "Conference Fellowships" to help junior investigators, female, and other under-represented groups attend the meeting and give an oral or poster presentation. This will ensure that NSF's goal of enhancing opportunities for development of advanced carriers in research is fully met.
