This project will organize a Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Enzymes, Coenzymes, and Metabolic Pathways. This seminar will precede the regular Gordon Research Conference on Enzymes, Coenzymes, and Metabolic Pathways. The "Enzymes" GRS is the pivotal conference for early-career researchers focused on dissecting the molecular mechanisms of biochemical reactions and provides a central meeting place for sharing ideas and networking in an informal setting. The long-term goals of this seminar are to foster interactions and collaborations within the graduate-student and postdoc community focused on studying the roles of enzymes in the biological processes that are fundamental for life.
The GRS has created a program of 13 Speakers (12 chosen from abstracts submitted by graduate students and postdocs, and 1 established investigator as a Keynote Speaker. These talks will describe current advances in understanding enzyme mechanisms, interdisciplinary methods to study them. Additionally, the GRS will hold a Career Mentorship Panel (6 leaders from diverse backgrounds), to expose the students and postdocs to different career options as scientists in the field of enzyme research, to help them decide between different paths if they have not done so yet, or to network with the panelists in the specific career they have already chosen. Members of underrepresented groups and female students and postdocs will specifically be invited to participate. This seminar is partially funded by the Molecular Biophysics Cluster of the Molecular and cellular Biosciences Division.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
