This application is for partial support of the 2005 and 2007 Gordon Research Conferences on Molecular and Cellular Biology of Lipids. These meetings bring together the leading scientists in the field to present and evaluate their latest research and are designed to stimulate the application of emerging technologies to the frontiers of lipid research. This conference has been held in odd years for over 45 years and is recognized internationally as the most prestigious forum for the presentation of the latest and most significant research in the area of lipid biochemistry and molecular biology. The 2005 meeting, which will be held July 15 to July 20 at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, NH will continue this tradition of emphasis on the enzymology, biochemistry, and cell biology of lipids, and will include newly emerging information on the role of lipid metabolism in obesity and diabetes, the regulation of lipid homeostasis by membrane bound sensors, and novel molecular mechanisms for intra- and intercellular lipid transport. Nine lecture sessions will be supplemented by afternoon poster sessions in which all participants will be encouraged to present their latest findings. The lecture sessions will cover the following topics: lipid homeostasis, interorganelle lipid transport, metabolites of fatty acids, triacylglycerol metabolism, obesity and diabetes, phospholipid metabolism, ABC transporters and transbilayer lipid flux, cholesterol metabolism, fatty acid biosynthesis, and regulation of lipid metabolism. The speakers will cover a broad spectrum of experimental methods and systems that span from whole animals to eukaryotic and prokaryotic microbes. These include mammalian transgenes and gene knockouts, bioinformatics strategies, protein structural biochemistry, enzymology, nmr, crystallographic and state-of-the-art, high resolution spectroscopic methods. These presentations have a history of stimulating lively interdisciplinary discussions among participants who include biochemists, biophysicists, cell biologists and geneticists. Participants of our past conferences have greatly benefited from the cross fertilization of ideas that emerge from these diverse experimental backgrounds and we believe this has contributed greatly to the recent advances in this important area of biochemistry, cell biology, and physiological chemistry. Participants and speakers will be selected to reflect international excellence in this area of research with an appropriate balance ensuring representation of young scientists, women, and minorities. Proper facilities are available to accommodate handicapped individuals who will be considered equally in the selection of attendees and speakers.
