A symposium under the auspices of the Society of General Physiologists is planned for September 9.12, 1987 at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The general topic of the symposium will be the cellular physiology of blood cells: erythrocytes, leukocytes, and platelets. Five broad areas will be covered: (1) hematopoesis, the regulation of differentiation and development of the three main cell types from stem cells; (2) membrane skeleton and contraction, including the structure and functions of contractile proteins in red cells and leukocytes and the relationships between surface antigens and proteins of the cytoskeleton in platelets; (3) anion transport in red cells and neutrophils; (4) ion channels and activation of blood cells, including patch.clamp measurements of K and Ca channels in lymphocytes, macrophages, and platelets, and (5) the phosphoinositide cycle and protein kinase C activation in the mediation of receptor signals from extracellular factors. Poster sessions, a major keynote address, and a symposium summary are also planned. This symposium will offer a unique opportunity for physiologists, cell biologists, biochemists, and hematologists to meet together at a single series of presentations and will allow cross.fertilization of ideas and critical comparisons of results from a variety of experimental approaches in a variety of cell systems. The published proceedings from this symposium are expected to make a timely and important contribution to this rapidly growing interdisciplinary area.
