This application requests funds to support the 5th Biannual Conference on Cell Death, to be held at Maynooth College, National University of Ireland, June 25-28 2004. The theme of the conference will be """"""""Cell Maintenance and Cell Death -- a Look into the 21st Century"""""""". The related fields of programmed cell death and apoptosis are important in several disciplines, including immunology, oncology, neurology, infectious diseases, cardiac infarct and stroke, reproductive biology, teratology, and environmental medicine. A major goal of our society is to serve as a means of maintaining a fruitful and synergistic dialog among these disciplines. We expect to focus in this conference on thresholds at which cells commit to death, particularly in situations in which alternative paths to death (apoptosis, autophagy, and other paths) are options. We will maintain focus on processes, particularly insofar as they relate to potential therapeutic uses and interpretations of laboratory and clinical data deriving therefrom. We will address such issues as the roles of non-caspase proteases in alternative paths to death and in atrophy and other cell regression without death, and in organs such as the eye, which are not usually considered in meetings. We have an excellent record of equality in ethnic and gender distribution among speakers, as well as accommodation for specific needs, and will take direct steps to continue and enhance this record. We also have an excellent record of supporting and featuring upcoming junior scientists at these meetings, who do not often meet face to face. We keep our costs low to encourage participation by junior scientists. This conference will bring together Americans and scientists predominantly from Europe and the Middle East. We have published two Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences from these meetings, and the last meeting served as a basis for the organization of the second edition of When Cells Die (Wiley-Liss). We expect that this meeting will lead to further publications.
