The hormones and neurotransmitters within neuroendocrine cells are localized within highly specialized secretory vesicles. It is generally acknowledged that these subcellular organelles perform an extremely important function in the life cycle of the hormone and neurotransmitter. The proposed conference, sponsored by the New York Academy of Sciences, will address the principles regulating hormone and neurotransmitter synthesis, accumulation, processing, storage and release from the viewpoint of the secretory vesicle. The importance of this conference on the molecular and cellular biology of hormone and neurotransmitter containing subcellular organelles is that these subcellular organelles have been treated for many years as essentially a """"""""black box"""""""" where biologically active compounds are packaged and stored prior to release. Indeed, many important neuroendocrine vesicles have not yet been isolated. Emerging interdisciplinary data, however, suggests that these are not passive storage organelles, but possess unique properties of composition, transport and storage. Using the knowledge that despite their differing embryologic origins, the secretory vesicles from neuroendocrine cells possess many universal properties, the meeting will provide a setting for the interaction of scientists from divergent backgrounds of molecular biology, neuroendocrinology, psychiatry, pharmacology, cellular physiology, membrane biophysics and transport, protein biochemistry, enzymology and neurobiology. The goals of this conference, the first to approach neuroendocrine homeostasis from the viewpoint of the secretory vesicle, include: (1) to summarize the state of knowledge in a rapidly emerging field; (2) to collectively analyze this data in a multidisciplinary fashion; and (3) to identify the central unanswered questions and foster interdisciplinary investigation.
