This application seeks partial funding for a biannual conference series entitled """"""""Virus Assembly"""""""" to be held under the sponsorship of the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB). The next meeting will be held in Saxton's River, Vermont, June 17-22, 2006, with subsequent meetings? being held in June/July 2008, and June/July 2010. This conference is structured to provide an optimal opportunity for cross-disciplinary interaction between scientists that share interests in all aspects of virus assembly including virus structure, particle formation and maturation, genome packaging, virus entry and exit, virus trafficking within cells and host interactions. These topics are discussed within the context of fundamental issues in virology and as they relate to novel approaches for antiviral intervention. We also seek to encourage discussion of relatively unconventional applications of virology, such as the use of viruses in nanotechnology and materials science. The conference promotes? the involvement of young female and minority scientists in these research areas. Among the invited 45 speakers and session chairs there will be 12 women. 9 additional presentations will be solicited from young scientists who submit abstracts. The major themes will be 1) structures of virions and viral proteins, 2) packaging of the viral genome, 3) viral entry, 4) viral fusion and uncoating, 5) trafficking of viruses in the cell, 6) viral protein folding and chaperone function, 7) dynamics of viral assembly, 8) virus-host interactions and 9) viruses in biotechnology and materials science.
