Symposium - Adaptations for Salt and Water Balance in Vertebrates, Nagoya Japan, May 31 - June 5, 2011

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

These funds support participation of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and young investigators at the International Conference on Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry (ICCPB 2011), to be held in Nagoya, Japan. Participants will build world-wide connections and gain cross-cultural exposure to institutions interested in global environmental effects on animals. Advances in understanding how animals adapt to environmental changes will support goals of safeguarding biodiversity at all levels. Funds will support individuals who have demonstrated exceptional aptitude and potential for advancing the field of epithelial fluid and solute dynamics and its regulation. A select group of individuals will present talks in a symposium focusing on concepts essential to understanding the role of epithelia in water and solute balance this balance has an overarching role in maintaining all life's basic functions. Epithelia are found in all organs, and exist as sheets of cells, assembled together by precisely arranged junctional proteins that lie between cells. Notably, the dynamics of water and solute flows through cells of the epithelial sheet are highly integrated with flows through junctions of the epithelial sheet, in a regulated, but poorly understood fashion. The symposium speakers will stress the importance of how and why cell-to-cell contact and plasticity of these systems are fundamental to appropriate tissue water and solute dynamics for all vertebrates. Other individuals supported by this grant will have the opportunity to present their research findings, face-to-face in poster sessions, with scientists from nearly every continent who work in widely diverse biological fields. A major goal will be to identify and select women and individuals of underrepresented ethnic minority background as recipients of these travel funds. Funding for student and trainee initiatives at ICCPB 2011 will play a key role in attracting and retaining the brightest and best-trained comparative physiologists.