2019 Plant Metabolic Engineering Gordon Research Conference and Gordon Research Seminar, June 16-21, 2019 in Il Ciocco, Italy

Gordon Research Conferences, East Greenwich RI

Investigators

Abstract

The 8th Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Plant Metabolic Engineering is scheduled for Jun 16-21 in Il Ciocco, Italy. Increasing populations and urbanization are compounding factors that impact future food, water, and energy demands. Plants contain a remarkable metabolic diversity that is just beginning to be tapped to address those challenges such as increasing crop yields, enhancing food production, and engineering plants to produce novel chemical products. Advances in reading and writing the DNA of plant genomes as well as the ability to exploit the diversity of natural metabolic production in plants are allowing plant scientists to engineer plants with improved and novel traits. This conference is focused on recently breakthroughs and advances in methods of engineering plant metabolic pathways with applications in engineering plants for the production of biofuels, improved fiber, pharmaceutical products, better animal feed, fragrances, flavors, and nutrition. The outcomes of this conference will provide global scientists the opportunity to exchange ideas and knowledge, and learn about new technologies and scientific advances to plant metabolic engineering. In addition, this conference provides a seminar series targeted at students, postdocs, and other scientists entering the field to provide additional training and knowledge exchange opportunities. The 2019 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and accompanying Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Plant Metabolic Engineering will build on the successes of previous GRCs that have focused on pathway discovery and recently on using the concepts and approaches of synthetic biology to guide plant metabolic engineering more effectively towards products and applications. Constraints (and opportunities) afforded by intracellular compartmentation, complex regulatory control mechanisms and multicellular context have rendered the discovery and design of plant metabolic pathways inherently more challenging than for microbial pathways. During the conference presentations from leading exponents of engineering fuel, fiber, pharma, feed, fragrance, flavors and food in plants, will highlight important future technologies that will facilitate both plant metabolic engineering and implementation strategies. A final objective is to build stronger networks between those working on plant metabolic engineering in the USA, Europe and Asia. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.