Dr. Rothfield and Dr. Boos are organizing the Gordon Conference on Bacterial Cell Surfaces, to be held in July, 1994. This will be the twelfth in a series of highly productive meetings that bring together scientists from around the world who are using a wide range of techniques to study the structural, functional and regulatory aspects of bacterial cell surfaces.All previous meetings since the inception of this conference in 1971 have been oversubscribed, attesting to their importance in the scientific community. Essentially all of the major figures in this field attend these conferences. The topics to be emphasized at this meeting will be: (1) mechanisms of membrane transport; (2) mechanisms of translocation and localization of membrane, cell envelope, and secreted proteins; (3) signal transduction within and across the cell envelope; (4) mechanisms of chemotaxis; (5) molecular organization of membrane and cell surface proteins; (6) role of cell envelope molecules in bacterial pathogenesis; (7) role of the cell envelope in cell differentiation and division. These areas are central to an understanding of many cellular processes. They are of major importance in understanding the ability of microorganisms to cause disease and in designing therapeutic antibacterial agents. In addition, they are directly relevant, because of the emphasis on mechanisms of protein secretion, to the large-scale production of recombinant proteins of medical and commercial interest. In addition to its major role in information transfer, the atmosphere of the Gordon Conferences is ideal for promoting informal interaction among scientists. The participants spend the five days of the meeting in an attractive but secluded location. Afternoons are free for informal discussions, and ample discussion time is left at the formal sessions to permit extended discussion of frontier-level areas. The participants will be a balance of established investigators and junior scientists, both pre- and postdoctoral. In addition to the invited lectures that comprise the bulk of the formal program, about 30 percent of the talks will be selected shortly before the meeting from abstracts of proposed poster presentations. This will facilitate the presentation of new and important results and will also provide a greater opportunity for junior researchers to present their work.
