Extremophile Research: Theory & Techniques Symposium and Workshop will be held in July 2000, 2001 and 2002.

George Mason University, Fairfax VA

Investigators

Abstract

Extremophile Research: Theory and Techniques is a course presented by the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) under the auspices of the Center of Marine Biotechnology (COMB), University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, and George Mason University's Institute for Bioscience, Bioinformatics, and Biotechnology (IB3). The four-day course will be held at COMB facilities in the Columbus Center, Baltimore, MD, during the summer each year for the next three years. Year one, the course will be held from July 24 to July 27, 2001; dates for years two and three will be determined in January of 2002 and 2003, respectively. "Extremophile Research: Theory and Techniques" includes a one-day symposium and a three-day intensive laboratory workshop. The symposium brings experts from various areas of extremophile research to present the current state of knowledge on growth, biochemistry and genetics of extremely anaerobic methanogens, hyperthermophiles and extreme halophiles. The laboratory sessions includes lectures, demonstrations and hands-on experiments in the specialized techniques used to study these organisms. Because of the high operating costs for the laboratory sessions, accessibility to faculty from small colleges and universities as well as post-doctoral and graduate students is limited by their ability to secure funds. To address this problem, funds will be used to provide full tuition scholarships to facilitate the attendance of graduate students and post-doctoral students working in various areas of extremophile research as well as half tuition fellowships to faculty from small colleges and universities who will be able to include these experiments in their curriculum.