2016 Cellular & Molecular Fungal Biology GRC, Plymouth, New Hampshire, June 19-24, 2016

Gordon Research Conferences, East Greenwich RI

Investigators

Abstract

This project will facilitate the attendance and participation of early career scientists in the Gordon Research Conference on Cellular and Molecular Fungal Biology to be held at the Holderness School, June 19-24, 2016. The goal of the conference is to disseminate information about fungal biology among an interdisciplinary group of researchers, and to increase our collective understanding of basic fungal biology and its application to socially important problems. Fungi are essential parts of the terrestrial nutrient cycle, play a central role in the development of biofuels, and produce many critically important chemicals. These diverse applications of fungi require the interdisciplinary acquisition and application of fundamental fungal biology. This project will support the convergence and exchange of new findings amongst an interdisciplinary group of scientists dedicated to the study of fungi. The intellectual merit of the project is rooted in the meeting's highly interdisciplinary and interactive format. The meeting will feature topics that integrate multiple time and space scales for different questions in fungal biology to promote interactions amongst researchers with diverse perspectives within the community. There is a specific emphasis on integrating mathematical modeling and biophysics as a new addition to this meeting and an entire session is dedicated to the interface of fungal biology with the physical sciences. The meeting enables cross-fertilization of ideas, from cell biology to evolution, that occurs in and outside of the sessions and especially between junior and senior scientists. Young investigators emphasize from previous meetings how interactive the conference is and how responsive it is to the presentation of their work. This conference has broad impacts on training and is dedicated to extending the research community by emphasizing women and members of underrepresented groups in inviting speakers. The current invited speakers are approximately 50% women, including several Latinas. The small size of the meeting and the emphasis on discussion (40% of meeting time is dedicated to discussions) encourages active participation. Poster sessions are featured without competing events to focus attention on the most junior scientists, who often have the newest data. The GRC on Cell and Molecular Fungal Biology also is dedicated to research that applies basic knowledge to socially important questions involving filamentous fungi, particularly mutualisms with plants (mycorrhizae), parasitism with plants (plant pathology) and animals (animal pathology), and industrial mycology (enzyme production). The interactions among researchers focused on both basic and socially important research speeds research aimed at solving societal problems caused by or that can be improved by fungi.