Recipient Organization
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
9650 ROCKVILLE PIKE
BETHESDA,MD 20814-3998
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Ubiquitn is a key regulatory protein in the development and response to signals in plants. The purpose of this meeting is to bring together scientists working on ubiquitin from diverse backgrounds to further research progress in this field.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The 9th biennial FASEB Summer Research Conference on "Ubiquitin and Cellular Regulation," will be held July 22-27, 2006 at Vermont Academy, Saxtons River, Vermont. This is the longest standing and arguably the most influential meeting in the ubiquitin field. The ubiquitin/ubiquitin-like protein (Ubl) field is an active, vibrant and collegial area of research. Knowledge regarding the role of ubiquitin in biological functions has increased exponentially in the last ten years and continues to grow at a rapid pace. Over 5% of the genome is apparently devoted to ubiquitination in plants, where the ubiquitin pathway is especially extensive. Key developmental processes in plants, including embryogenesis, hormone signaling, and senescence, are regulated by ubiquitin, exemplified by the connection between ubiquitin ligases and the plant growth hormone auxin. We have planned a 2006 conference that includes the latest advances in understanding how ubiquitination reactions are
regulated, how ubiquitin signals are recognized and how ubiquitination reactions influence different biological events. We have also included a diverse set of 44 invited speakers and session chairs - 38% female, 29% new to this conference, and 15% junior scientists (at the level of assistant professor or below). Junior scientists, especially students and postdoctoral scientists, will also be heavily represented in the speakers chosen from abstract submissions. The conference will be held at a remote site and with a program that promotes interaction and scientific discussion among attendees. From the USDA, we seek partial support for travel and registration expenses for the speakers that participate in the 2006 conference, particularly those that work on plants. The Aims of these conferences are: 1) To have presentations on the latest information in the key areas of ubiquitin/Ubl biology. 2) To foster the exchange of information between scientists established and new to the
ubiquitin/Ubl field. 3) To include diverse speakers from different areas of biology, including plant scientists.
Project Methods
The conference "Ubiquitin and Cellular Regulation" is scheduled for July 22-27, 2006. The conference will be held at Vermont Academy in Saxtons River, Vermont. The conference will begin with a keynote talk, to be given this year by Alexander Varshavsky. Dr. Varshavsky is one of the intellectual leaders in the field and has been for several decades. He will discuss his recent work using mouse genetics to uncover the physiological roles of ubiquitin and his talk will set the stage for a stimulating and scientifically intense meeting. The remaining talks will be presented in nine sessions. These sessions are organized to broadly cover different areas of ubiquitin and Ubl research. This list of topics is: 1. The Ubiquitination Machinery 2. Ubiquitin & Ubl Ligases 3. Regulation of Ubiquitin & Ubl Modifications 4. Ubiquitin/Ubl-Binding Proteins and Receptors 5. The Proteasome 6. Ubiquitin/Ubls and Disease 7. Ubiquitin/Ubls in the Nucleus 8. Ubiquitin/Ubls, Membranes and
Signaling 9. Role of Ubiquitin & Ubls in Quality Control. The morning session, from 9 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., will consist of seven or eight 15-25 min talks by invited speakers and speakers selected from abstracts. The evening sessions, from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. will consist of four 25-minute talks by invited speakers. The afternoons will be devoted to workshops and poster sessions, a perennial highlight of this meeting. We have expanded the official afternoon poster session and we have arranged for the evening talks to end earlier to allow additional poster viewing from 9:30-11 p.m. Speakers were chosen based on recent work in the field and their speaking ability. We have selected speakers who have recently published new and important work or who have reliably presented new and exciting material at this meeting in the past. We have included young investigators who are beginning to establish themselves, as well as a number of investigators who have never presented at this meeting. To
maximize the number of junior and new speakers we have asked nine long-standing investigators, who are active and valued members of the community, to chair sessions and forego giving talks. In the selection of speakers from submitted abstracts we will give preferential selection to women and minorities where equivalent options exist. This meeting was oversubscribed, so the chair selected 185 participants from a pool of applicants that was greater than 220. The main, but not sole, criterion was to maximize the scientific quality of the meeting. We represented all areas of the field in which significant new work is underway and we balanced the composition of the meeting with regard to junior and established scientists, gender, minority status, and geographic bias when selecting participants.