This proposal is for support of the only international meeting dedicated to skeletal muscle excitation contraction coupling and the diseases that alter this process. The Muscle: Excitation Contraction Gordon conference will meet June 4-9, 2006 at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire and will have approximately 150 participants. This conference began in 1970 and has met every 3 years since that time. In 2006, this conference will have 31 speakers representing 8 different counties. Since open discussion is a crucial part of a successful Gordon conference, we have allowed considerable time for discussion and will have 18 discussion leaders. Topics include structure and interactions of E-C coupling proteins, modulation and regulation of E-C coupling, the role of E-C coupling proteins in muscle disease, and excitation transcription coupling. New to the 2006 conference will be a discussion of muscle damage and repair with a particular emphasis on the role in alterations in intracellular Ca2+ concentrations. Historically, both the Excitation-Contraction Coupling Gordon Conference and the Ion Channel Gordon Conference emerged from an earlier Gordon Conference which addressed issues relating not only to muscle in particular but also to ion channels more generally. Clearly, the two fields overlap and have much to contribute to one another. Thus, an important goal for organizing the 2006 EC coupling conference was to incorporate leading investigators working on ion channels and calcium signaling in non-muscle systems such as the immune and nervous systems. This has become particularly relevant since recent work has demonstrated the muscle possesses calcium refilling pathways similar to those of non-excitable cells.
