This grant will partially support travel costs and conference registration fees for Speakers and Session Chairs who have been invited to participate in the Molecular Membrane Biology Gordon Conference to be held July 10-15 at Proctor Academy in Andover, NH. This meeting brings together scientists working on all aspects of membrane structure and function, including vesicular trafficking and organelle biogenesis and structure, lipid biology, membrane protein structure and function, and protein translocation. Hence, MMB has great value in the community in that it facilitates detailed discussion and scientific exchange between disciplines focused on understanding the complexity of membrane function. Proposed session topics include: Membrane Fusion; Diverse Translocation Machineries; Intracellular Sorting Mechanisms; Organizing Membrane Subdomains; Membrane Bending/Fission; Conformation Dynamics at the Membrane; Lipids and Compartment Identity; Organelle Biogenesis and Dynamics; and Transport Carrier Formation. We have invited a diverse group of speakers, many are early in their careers, 31% are female. We have left open as many as 18 slots for Speakers chosen from submitted abstracts, increasing our opportunities for hearing the most recent and exciting results and diversifying our speakers. We have invited several more senior leaders to serve as Session Chairs, and have set aside 15 minutes at the end of each session for the Chairs to summarize the session and to lead a general discussion on current controversies, unresolved issues and future directions that will engage a large percentage of the audience. This meeting is generally oversubscribed and considered a 'must-attend' for many in the field. Research conducted by attendees is funded by several NIH institutes, including NIGMS, NCI, NIBIB, NIDDK, NIMH and NIAID. Thus, the work discussed is of general significance to human health and disease.
