The single-celled algal protist Chlamydomonas is a favored model organism for studies using cell biology, genetics, biochemistry, biophysics, structural biology, and genomics to learn about basic, evolutionarily conserved cellular structures and processes. The Chlamydomonas research community meets every two years to exchange methods, develop collaborative efforts, disseminate recent advances, and plan large-scale studies to improve the usefulness of this unique research organism. The objectives of this conference include the provision of a forum for all researchers using the unicellular Chlamydomonas and its multicellular relative Volvox to present and discuss their results, to exchange information, to develop new collaborations, and to improve the usefulness of shared database resources.
Broader Impacts. This conference will provide opportunities for expanding the use of Chlamydomonas and related algae as research and educational tools and will promote and showcase the research of younger scientists, women and members of underrepresented minorities. Postdoctoral fellows, graduate (and some undergraduate) students, women and minorities are encouraged to present their research.
This award is co-funded by the Cellular Systems Cluster and the Genes and Genomes Systems Cluster.
Federal Award ID: 1019272 The 2010 Conference on the Cell and Molecular Biology of Chlamydomonas was held June 6-10 near Boston, MA, and attracted a record 273 participants, 146 from US labs, 10 from Canada, and the remainder from 18 other countries. The single-celled algal protist Chlamydomonas is a key research organism for many investigators, including those who study photosynthesis, cell motility, adaptation to environmental stresses, the evolution of multicellularity, and the production of biofuels. Chlamydomonas researchers gather every two years at a research conference to exchange methods, develop collaborative efforts, disseminate recent findings, and plan large-scale studies to improve the usefulness of this unique research organism. This conference provides the only opportunity for Chlamydomonas scientists who work on different research problems to meet face to face, and greatly speeds progress in their respective fields. An important function of these Chlamydomonas conferences is to promote and showcase the work of younger scientists, and to attract new investigators into the Chlamydomonas community. NSF award 1019272 was used to offset the travel and registration costs for 10 young investigators, 9 of whom were women, 3 of them African American. Most of these scientists would not have been able to attend the conference without NSF support. A total of 208 research presentations were made at the meeting, 80 talks (63 presented by students, postdocs, and pre-tenured faculty) and 128 posters. Cell motility and biofuels/metabolism were the best-represented research areas, with a total of 77 presentations. This fact underscores the growing importance of Chlamydomonas as a research and production tool in the rapidly expanding world of biofuels research. A total of 28 talks and posters were presented on the topics of photosynthesis and stress responses, which were among the next best-represented research areas. As at several recent Chlamydomonas meetings, important advances were reported in the area of tool development, advances that conference attendees should be able to employ in their own labs to speed the analysis of gene function. In summary, support from NSF award 1019272 helped to make the 2010 Conference on the Cell and Molecular Biology of Chlamydomonas an unqualified success. Thanks to that support it was possible to attract a new cohort of young investigators to this biennial conference. These young scientists benefited from the opportunity to present their results to, and to interact with, the international Chlamydomonas research community. The Chlamydomonas community benefited by learning about the advances reported by these scientists, and it will continue to benefit from the contributions these investigators will make as their training and careers progress.
