U.S.-Mexico Workshop: Physical and Chemical Aspects of Molecular Biology. An International Workshop on Current Problems in Complex Fluids

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

This U.S.-Mexico award will support a workshop on the physical and chemical aspects of molecular biology as continuation of a series of international workshops on current problems in complex fluids. The meeting will be held in Puebla, Mexico, January 3 - 6, 2007, and has been organized by Prof. Mathias Loesche of Carnegie-Mellon University, together with Profs. Rolando Castillo of the Institute of Physics, National Autonomous University of Mexico, and Jaime Ruiz-Garcia of the Institute of Physics, Universidad Autonoma de San Luis de Potosi. The organizers aim to discuss current developments in molecular and cellular biology in an interdisciplinary setting that focuses on the interface between physics and biology. The workshop will include research presentations and discussions of interdisciplinary topics related to problems of relevance in biology, such as: nucleic acid conformation in confined geometries; lipid membrane dynamics, structure and function; proteins in two-dimensional matrices; and cell signaling as the coupling of information flow between 2D and 3D spaces. The meeting will foster communication and contact between a diverse group of senior researchers, leaders of their respective fields, and young researchers, such as tenure-track faculty, postdocs and graduate students, from the U.S., Mexico and Europe. As such, it is expected to foster collaboration in specific research projects between individuals or groups of both countries in areas of biological physics and quantitative biology and to promote access to special facilities, and laboratories. Particular emphasis will be placed on the participation and training of graduate students and other young researchers.