This application seeks partial funding for the Gordon Research conference entitled """"""""Signal Transduction within the Nucleus"""""""" to be held March 25-30, 2007 at the Crown Plaza Hotel, Venura CA, USA. Our highly successful inaugural meeting was held February, 2005 and we seek to also secure funding commitment for our third meeting to be held in Spring 2009. This conference brings together a wide variety of investigators focused on understanding how signaling pathways participate in the regulation of nuclear processes. Numerous enzymes and macromolecular machines contribute to the complex ensemble of decoding devices necessary to ensure an organism's survival in ever-changing environments. The uniqueness of this conference is the mixing of investigators studying signaling pathways with those studying nuclear function whose work has converged. We have significantly broadened this program with respect to both signaling and nuclear processes, well beyond our inaugural conference which focused on agonist-induced nuclear lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. This programs includes nucleo-cytoplasmic signaling, nuclear lipid signaling, chromatin structure and modifications, DNA damage/repair pathways, roles of nuclear organization and spatial architecture, dynamics of the nuclear envelope, and mRNA splicing and export. Many of these pathways and processes have well-established connections to the pathophysiology of disease processes, underscoring their relationship to improving human health. For example, the relationships of DNA repair pathways to cancer biology, and laminopathies to premature aging (progeria). We anticipate that this will be an outstanding and unique meeting that offers the opportunity of cross-fertilization among outstanding investigators. The requested funds will be invaluable to the support of this conference.
