? ? This application seeks partial funding for the South Eastern Region Lipid Conference to be held from November 1st-Novemeber 3rd 2006 at the High Hampton Inn, Cashiers, North Carolina. This will be the 41st annual conference on this subject. These funds will be used specifically to support the registration and travel expenses of junior investigators, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students who will be attending the conference and presenting their work as invited presentations, short talks or posters. The funds will also be used for travel expenses related to the key note speakers and for fees related to hosting site. The broad goal of this successful and established conference is to provide a form for review and discussion of recent research on the structure, function, and regulation of lipids. Lipid enzymes play central roles in many aspects of cell regulation by producing or modulating bioactive lipids and lipid-derived products. For example, ? phospholipases A generate fatty acids and lysophospholipids. These enzymes initiate production of receptoractive lipids including lysophosphatidic acid and the eicosanoid metabolites of arachidonic acid and have well established roles in cancer and inflammatory diseases. Phospholipases C and D produce lipid second messengers in response to agonist activation of cell surface receptors regulating signaling pathways coupled to control of cell growth, survival, motility and vesicular transport. The conference also includes talks on enzymes that synthesise and degrade sphingolipids with roles in cellular stress responses and apoptosis as well as a session on analysis of lipid structures by mass spectrometry. This conference brings together scientists with a shared interest in these enzymes that are working in diverse disciplines including biophysics, structural, cell and molecular biology. The conference has a strong record of including presentations of established investigators as keynote speakers, but mainly focuses on presentations by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Thus, the conference not only provides an effective forum for promoting collaborations and new advances in the field, but also serves as a training tool for young scientists. The subject area is one that receives considerable support from the NIH with over 400 active projects and this field has generated >2000 peer reviewed research publications each year over the last 10 years. The funds requested in this proposal will make an invaluable contribution to the support of this conference. ? ? ?
