Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The 2006 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on the Molecular Basis of Microbial One-Carbon Metabolism is an international meeting with a 26-year history. It is the sole meeting in the world that covers the biology, geochemistry, and biochemistry of microbes that generate and utilize one-carbon compounds. These compounds are of broad global importance because some are potent greenhouse gases while others (CO, CH2Cl2) are toxic. The biology is billions of years old and has been proposed to represent the earliest processes to have evolved on earth. The conference attracts scientists with diverse backgrounds. The interdisciplinary nature of the meeting is exciting because a number of collaborations emerge from the informal meetings, poster sessions, and lectures. The meeting also presents an outstanding training opportunity for younger scientists and helps usher them into this exciting area. The last Conference in July 2004 scored above average in every category. The
strength of the planned program, the infusion of new investigators, the informal atmosphere of a GRC, and the beautiful conference site plus the numerous opportunities that will be provided for interactions outside the formal sessions, should make this Conference the best C-1 GRC yet.
Animal Health Component
20%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
80%
Applied
20%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
There are several objectives of the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on the Molecular Basis of Microbial One-Carbon Metabolism. To offer an exciting meeting that will attract active members of the community with varied expertise and interests in different aspects of the field of one-carbon metabolism and who are committed to participate actively in the meeting. To spur progress in this area by including seminars and posters describing new findings in the evolution, structural biology, enzyme mechanisms, gene regulation, ecology, and applied biology as they relate to C1 metabolism and new approaches to the study and manipulation of microbial metabolic pathways, and new insights into natural populations of these bacteria. To enhance interactions and collaborations within the C-1 community. To offer an excellent training opportunity for younger scientists and help usher them into this exciting area.
Project Methods
The 2006 international Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on the Molecular Basis of Microbial One-Carbon Metabolism will be held August 6-11 at Magdalen College in Oxford, United Kingdom. The objective is to organize an exciting meeting that will attract active members of the community with varied expertise and interests in different aspects of the field of one-carbon metabolism and who are committed to participate actively in the meeting. Research on the pathways of one-carbon metabolism has added greatly to our understanding of evolution, structural biology, enzyme mechanisms, gene regulation, ecology, and applied biology. One-carbon compound are of broad global importance because several C-1 compounds, e.g., CO2 and CH4, are potent greenhouse gases while others (CH2Cl2) are xenobiotics. They are central in pathways of energy metabolism and carbon fixation by microbes and many are of industrial interest. The expected outcome of this conference is that it will be
stimulating and synergistic and lead to enhanced interactions and collaborations within the community. This will be the fourth binennial incarnation of the C-1 meeting as a Gordon Research Conference and the twelfth C-1 meeting in a twenty-seven year old tradition. This meeting that brings together researchers who study One-Carbon Metabolism in Eucarya, Archaea, and Bacteria. The Chair of the upcoming conference is Cornelius Friedrich, Professor of Microbiology at the University of Dortmund in Germany. The Co-Chair is the PI of this proposal, Stephen W. Ragsdale, Bessey Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Several lectures will focus on microbial genomics and cover the new technologies being developed in programs like the Genomes to Life Program (genomics, proteomics, gene expression analysis, environmental genomics, single cell technologies, microbe-microbe interactions). The conference will include sessions on biogeochemical cycling of carbon,
atmospheric greenhouse gases (CO2, CO, and methane) and ammonia, which are related to mitigation of emissions. Several lectures will focus on Bio-based Products and Bioenergy Production Research (especially in the area of biological and microbiological processes central to bio-methane and bio-hydrogen production).