FASEB 2000 Summer Conference-The Tetraspanin Superfamily to be held July 4-6, 2000 in Snowmass Village, Colorado

Federation Of Amer Societies For Exper Biology, Rockville MD

Investigators

Abstract

This award provides partial funding for the FASEB 2000 Summer Research Conference on Tetraspanins to be held July 4-July 6 2000 in Snowmass Village, Colorado. This is the first conference ever to be dedicated to this particular superfamily of proteins. This superfamily includes a large number of evolutionary conserved and ubiquitously expressed genes. Tetraspanins have been implicated in basic biological processes such as cell proliferation, adhesion and motility, and membrane fusion. This is a relatively new field of research, as the first members of this family were identified only a decade ago. The interest in the family has been growing rapidly with new members being identified in a wide range of species including mammals, nematodes, Drosophila and Schistosomes. Moreover, known members are being rediscovered continuously by a variety of functional assays. For example, one member of the family has been identified last year as the putative receptor for hepatitis c virus. Because of the involvement of tetraspanins in multiple cellular activities, researchers in this field come from various biological disciplines. To date, communications in this field have been limited to publications, exchange of reagents, and to occasional contacts between individual scientists. This conference is the inaugural tetraspanin research meeting where all interested scientists will meet in person. This will be extremely beneficial for future collaborative studies focused on understanding the mechanism(s) of functionality of this superfamily of proteins. The Purposes of the Conference are: 1. To assemble investigators working in this rapidly evolving field to meet each other and to present unpublished data and discuss questions unique to our field. One important aspect of the conference is to bring together senior scientists who have long-term involvement in the field with those who are newcomers to the field because they have encountered tetraspanins in unrelated fields of research. Another important mission of this conference is to give an opportunity to junior scientists to present unpublished studies via an abstract-driven presentation mechanism. 2. To stimulate future interactions amongst investigators from diverse disciplines. 3. To identify experimental approaches to unsolved questions in the field. 4. To tackle nomenclature issues. 5. To summarize the current knowledge of the field in an updated review to be published in a high profile scientific journal.