Conference: 17th International Symposium on Plant Lipids to be held July 16-21,2006 in East Lansing, Michigan.

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

This project will provide partial support to the 17th Biannual International Symposium on Plant Lipids, which will be held at East Lansing, Michigan from July 16-21, 2006. Research on plant lipids is vital and exciting with major new developments occurring in the areas of trafficking, subcellular organization, metabolic engineering, signaling, flux analysis, network regulation and other areas. As in many fields of plant biology and biochemistry, Arabidopsis has contributed enormously to rapid developments in the study of plant lipid metabolism. More recently, with the availability of the genomic information for plants and algae, there are several exciting new models to study lipid metabolism in an evolutionary context and in photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms adapted to extremely different ecological environments. It is proposed to address these and other newly emerging themes and opportunities in the plant lipid field during the upcoming 17th International Symposium on Plant Lipids. This project will provide: 1. partial support for registration and lodging costs for students, postdocs and other young scientists; 2. support for attendance of underrepresented minority scientists and researchers from minority-serving institutions. Broader Impacts Beyond the need to foster the interaction between an internationally dispersed group of plant lipid scientists, the envisioned balanced program is designed to: break new ground in integrating plant lipid research with work from non-plant systems; to provide speaking opportunities and exposure for young scientists and underrepresented groups from inside the US and abroad; and to attract colleagues who would not attend the meeting either because they are from other fields or because they cannot afford to participate. Therefore, this project will allow a diverse and widely-representative meeting that will accelerate progress and new developments in plant lipid research. To ensure the broadest possible participation, efforts will be made to widely publicize this meeting to attract scientists from small and large colleges, universities and research centers as well as small and large biotech companies. All participants will be asked to provide a manuscript for the proceedings of the meeting which will be edited by the organizers and posted as a pdf file at the meeting website.