This proposal seeks funding to support a new Gordon Research Conference (GRC) that will focus on functional proteins not having unique 3-D structures, known as intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). Recent studies have revealed that IDPs are highly abundant in nature and carry out a number of crucial biological functions that are complementary to the functions of structured (ordered) proteins. In any given organism, IDPs constitute a functionally broad and densely populated subset of its proteome. IDPs are common across the three domains of life, being especially abundant in the eukaryotic proteomes. Signaling sequences and sites of posttranslational modifications are commonly located within regions of intrinsic disorder. Disorder-to-order transitions in an IDP are coupled with the adoption of different structures in complexes with different partners. The disorder-based signaling is modulated by various posttranslational modifications and alternative splicing. GRC provides a forum for the discussion of IDPs, with topics including but not limited to experimental and theoretical studies of their intrinsically flexible state, mechanisms of their interactions and their functional roles in biological systems. This GRC will unite participants from all scientific disciplines with an interest in broadening our understanding of IDPs and engaging in biophysical studies of individual proteins as well as genomic and proteomic studies in whole organisms.
Broader Impact This conference seeks to gather leading and established specialists in the field and to bring them into contact with each other and with younger scientists, in an effort to seed new thoughts across the field. Consistent with the GRC philosophy, a retreat-like atmosphere will be designed. This will help in summarizing current knowledge and in spreading the ideas across the community. There are no formal publications of the conference proceedings, only collegial exchanges on site and afterward. This new GRC will help promote research of IDPs at different levels and in various fields, including but not limited to bioinformatics, proteomics, interactomics, and unfoldomics and then will help to link the results of these diverse studies with the thorough and detailed characterization of IDPs. In the preliminary program, ten of thirty one speakers and discussion leaders are women. The program has a balanced mixture of established and young scientists. When the attendees are selected from the pool of applicants, principles of affirmative action with respect to minority groups, women and junior scientists will be used as criteria, in addition to the date of application and the scientific background of the applicant.
The Gordon Research Conference on INTRINSICALLY DISORDERED PROTEINS was held at Davidson College, Davidson, NC July 11-16, 2010. The Conference was well-attended with 133 participants (attendees list attached). The attendees represented the spectrum of endeavor in this field coming from academia, industry, and government laboratories, both U.S. and foreign scientists, senior researchers, young investigators, and students. Of the 133 attendees, 54 voluntarily responded to a general inquiry regarding ethnicity which appears on our registration forms. Of the 54 respondents, 24% were Minorities – 2% Hispanic, 20% Asian, and 2% African American. Approximately 30% of the participants at the 2010 meeting were women. In designing the formal speakers program, emphasis was placed on current unpublished research and discussion of the future target areas in this field. There was a conscious effort to stimulate lively discussion about the key issues in the field today. Time for formal presentations was limited in the interest of group discussions. In order that more scientists could communicate their most recent results, poster presentation time was scheduled. Attached is a copy of the formal schedule and speaker program and the poster program. In addition to these formal interactions, "free time" was scheduled to allow informal discussions. Such discussions are fostering new collaborations and joint efforts in the field. Thank you for your support of this Conference. As you know, in the interest of promoting the presentation of unpublished and frontier-breaking research, Gordon Research Conferences does not permit publication of meeting proceedings
