Conference: 2001 Glycobiology Gordon Conference being held March 4-9, 2001 in Ventura, CA

Gordon Research Conferences, East Greenwich RI

Investigators

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY This award provides partial support for the Gordon Conference on Glycobiology scheduled for March 4-9, 2001 at the Sheraton Harbortown Resort, Ventura, CA. The previous conference was held at the same venue on February 21-26, 1999. This was a highly successful conference and, in keeping with earlier conferences, demand for places outstripped supply and the 150 delegate places were quickly filled. The Gordon Conference on Glycobiology is the main venue for presentation and discussion of current and future directions in the field of glycobiology. By bringing together scientists whose skills span a wide range of disciplines including chemistry, cell biology, genetics, developmental biology and bioinformatics, these conferences consistently lead to new insights, new interactions, new collaborations, and new research directions. The 2001 Glycobiology Gordon Conference will build on the successful traditions of previous conferences whilst taking account of the many exciting new avenues of glycobiological research which are being opened up by the information emanating from Genome Projects. For example, once the amino acid sequences of the several hundred thousand proteins that make up a human being are known, scientists will be faced with the awesome challenge of understanding their functions and learning how post-translational events such as glycosylation contribute to human health and disease. Glycobiologists will play key roles in the post-genomics era and the 2001 Gordon Conference is well timed to facilitate inter-disciplinary collaborations essential to the successful exploitation of genomic information of relevance to glycobiology. The main themes of the conference will be: (i) structural glycobiology with special emphasis on technological developments and new information pertaining to lectin-carbohydrate recognition; (ii) the impact of genomics on glycobiology; (iii) discoveries from knockout mouse experiments; (iii) glyco-immunology; (iv) reproductive and developmental glycobiology; (v) neuro-glycobiology; (vi) glycoconjugates as therapeutic agents. Since glycopolymers are important in a wide range of biological and pathological systems, this multi-disciplinary approach should appeal to a broad spectrum of investigators.