The award will provide support for graduate students, post-doctoral associates and early career independent scientists to attend an international meeting in Lima, Peru July 18-21, 2019. The meeting will bring together leaders in the fields of single molecule applications and nanoscale visualization. These approaches reveal the molecular details of how the information encoded in DNA is read and implemented. The meeting format is designed to foster interactions between junior and senior scientists, as keynote lectures and short talks will be held in the same sessions. RoundTable discussions will mix novices and experts to encourage interactions among students, postdoctoral associates, and junior and senior faculty. The meeting will introduce the power of these techniques to potential users, fostering interdisciplinary collaborations.
Single-molecule manipulation and visualization techniques have unveiled many new operating principles of the molecular and cellular processes that drive the flow of information from genes to proteins, i.e., the central dogma of molecular biology. The meeting will cover most of the recent breakthroughs produced by single molecule biophysical approaches in DNA replication, transcription, translation, and associated processes. In terms of dissemination, the organizers will make the abstracts of the talks and posters available to both participants and non-participants on a website.
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.