This award will support a seminar on "Metallothionein in Biology and Medicine," organized by Prof. Curtis D. Klaassen of the University of Kansas Medical Center, and Prof. Kazuo Suzuki of the National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan. Participants will meet in Honolulu, Hawaii, in December 1989 to exchange recent research results and promote future joint research projects. The seminar will deal with the general biological and chemical properties of metallothionein; its physiological and nutritional aspects; transport of metallothionein within the body; diseases derived from metallothionein; methods of analysis of metallothionein; and use of metallothionein in medicine. Metallothionein is a protein which is easily taken into tissues in the presence of cadmium. Since current work on metallothionein grew out of cadmium contamination of the Japanese environment and subsequent physiological disorders, the Japanese have become expert in this field. This seminar may improve the understanding of metallothionein: while the dynamics of metallothionein uptake and transport has been to some extent well-delineated over the past few years, its function is still unknown. The multidisciplinary approach evidenced by the diversity of those invited may lead to a breakthrough in understanding the function of metallothionein, and therefore its good and bad effects.
