The Ninth Gordon Conference on Molecular Pharmacology will be organized around the theme of """"""""Mechanisms of Membrane Signal Transduction"""""""", an area of rapid advance in research in molecular pharmacology. The conference is designed to promote interdisciplinary exchange of current ideas and information among participants with interests in a broad range of experimental problems related to this theme. Speakers using a wide range of experimental approaches in physiology, pharmacology, biochemistry and molecular genetics have been invited to participate. The speaker list includes both established and junior investigators from universities, research institutes and industrial laboratories. Participants will be selected to maximize audience contributions to discussion and to poster sessions. Broad representation of disciplines and institutions will be sought. Emphasis will be placed upon selection of women and young scientists as participants. Basic mechanisms of transmembrane signaling are repeated throughout biology. These processes underlie information processing and transfer in the nervous system and impulse initiation, condition and regulation in the heart. Insulin and other growth factors initiate their physiological effects by actions at the cell membrane which are transmitted by intracellular signals. Oncogenes are derived from growth factors, their receptors, membrane signal transduction proteins and their intracellular effectors, the protein kinases. Therefore, the topics to be considered cut across the areas of interest of NIGMS, NINCDS, NHLBI, NIADDK, and NCI. Fundamental knowledge of mechanisms of transmembrane signaling will provide a basis for new understanding of pathophysiology and therapeutic intervention in diverse disease entities including epilepsy and other neurological diseases, cardiovascular disease and cardiac arrhythmia, diabetes, and cancer.
