Progress 01/15/24 to 01/14/25
Outputs
Target Audience:The meeting was attended by 136 participants, who included 66 tenured or tenure-track academic faculty (10 assistant professors), 43 graduate students, 20 postdocs, 5 participants from government research centers and 2 from industry. The attendance was a significant increase over the 107 participants of the 2022 meeting. The meeting had a large percentage of European attendees (66%), which is considerably higher than the GRC average of 24.2%. 12.2% of the attendees were from Asia, a number that is still rebounding from the pandemic-affected Asian attendance of 2022 (2.2%). Female scientists accounted for 36.8% of the participants, which is somewhat lower than the GRC average of 42.8%, but matches historical numbers for this conference (~36%). The proportion of female speakers at 38.5% was closer to the GRC average of 41.6%. Age demographics were largely commensurate with those of the aggregate GRCs. The GRS attendance included 32 graduate students, 13 postdocs and eleven faculty, mostly assistant professors. Changes/Problems:Comments and criticisms regarding the GRC and GRS were generally favorable and constructive. These comments where collected from all participants at the business meeting by the GRC, summarized and shared with the outgoing and incoming chairs. There were predictably comments regarding emphasis areas, which we will take into account in organizing the next meeting. Reasonably, people called for greater ethnic and gender diversity among the attendees; this is also an area we will attempt to improve on for 2026. In the business meeting the new vice-chair was elected to be Brian Zoltowski (Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA), he will support the incoming chair Eirini Kaiserli (University of Glasgow). The timing of the meeting was also chosen to ideally remain in the early spring, as it has been for many years. The site of the 2026 meeting was chosen to be the Ventura Beach Marriott in California, Feb 8-13th, 2026. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The GRC and GRS place an emphasis on training early-career scientists. 43 graduate students and 20 postdocs attended the GRC and GRC. The small size of the meeting, sequestered environment, shared meals, well attended poster sessions and time for informal interactions was highly conducive to networking and mentoring. In addition, the GRC power hour and GRS mentoring sessions offered organized activities for discussing issues of professional development, which were particularly targeted at women and URM trainees. The GRC Power Hour addressed challenges women face in science and issues of diversity and inclusion. The program was led by Dr. Chandra Tucker, who initiated extensive discussion on the strategies for obtaining a tenure track position, the importance of networking and the mechanisms that institutions are putting in place to ensure support for the careers of women and diverse applicants. Many young scientists and several assistant professors shared their personal experiences in the context of breakout sessions and larger group discussions. The GRS mentoring session provided an opportunity those seeking a scientific career to interact with well-stablished career scientists in a friendly environment, where they were able to ask questions, voice concerns related with their futures and address career topics. Dr. Jay Dunlap, a well-established senior professor and national academy member and Dr. Moran Shalev-Benami, a highly successful junior faculty, gave talks sharing tips for success in starting and maintaining a scientific career. Dr. Shalev-Benami focused on aspects of how to plan research and strategies for staying abrest of new developments in your field, whereas Dr. Dunlap discussed best practices and tricks of the trade for publishing (and reviewing) scientific papers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Dissemination of conference materials occured only to the participants, at the meeting. The Gordon Research Conference has a strict policy of confidentiality regarding meeting presentations so that participants will be comfortable sharing unpublished work. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The 2024 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Photosensory Receptors and Signal Transduction and associated Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) was held successfully March 3rd to April 8th at the Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco in Barga Italy. The meeting Chair was Brian Crane (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY), and the Vice-Chair was Eirini Kaiserli (University of Glasgow, Scotland). Program: The meeting program consisted of 9 sessions, which each presented work from several speakers, who represented both senior and junior scientists. Poster sessions were held each afternoon. The full program is listed at https://www.grc.org/photosensory-receptors-and-signal-transduction-conference/2024/ A brief summary with highlights follows below: 1. Vision and Light Perception (Sunday PM) Discussion Leader Kevin Gardner. This session presented exciting new findings with respect to functional roles of photoreceptors, particularly, but not exclusively opsins, in diverse biological systems. Kristin Tessmar-Raible discussed how cryptochromes in the aquatic bristel worm entrain circalunar behavior. Zuzana Musilova presented how specialized rhodopsin molecules allow deep sea fish to perceive small amounts light. Robert Lucas revealed new data on how melanopsin, thought to be associated primarily with circadian rhythm entrainment, also supports image persistence, while Akihisa Terakita discussed new details involving the signal transduction cascades of arthozoan-specific opsins. 2. Blue-Light Dependent Sensing Mechanisms (Monday AM) Discussion Leader Margaret Ahmad. In the blue-light sensing session Bambos Kyriacou and Daniel Kattnig reported on the role of cryptochromes in magnetic field responses, from both an experimental (flies) and theoretical point of view, respectively. Dongping Zhong described insights into the detailed mechanism of BLUF photoreceptors from ultrafast spectroscopy. Rodrigo Maillard presented a novel approach for studying the conformational changes of photoreceptors utilizing single-molecule pulling experiments, whereas Tilman Kottke applied advanced in-cell spectroscopy to the study of photo-induced flavin-containing photoreceptors. Elmar Behrmann presented exciting new structural work on the bristle worm cryptochrome. 3. Bilin-Based Photoreception (Monday PM) Discussion Leader Sarah Mathews. The bilin-based photoreceptor section discussed detailed mechanistic studies on phytochrome activation (Sebastian Westenhoff, John Hughes, Oliver Eder) as well as functional roles of phytochromes in transcriptional start site selection (Tomonao Matsushita). Advanced x-ray diffraction methods played front and center in the work of Emina Stojkovic and Sebastian Westenhoff for revealing how light excitation of bilin chromophores couple to protein conformational change. 4. Light Sensing and Responses by Plants (Tuesday AM) Discussion Leader Charlotte Gommers. The plant photobiology session generated particular excitement because of the novel biological mechanisms various photoreceptors were discovered to play in plant responses. For example, Christian Fankhauser described how the plant vasculature functions to pipe light into internal tissues so that even roots can respond to light signals. Jorge Casal explained how light and temperature cues coordinate to regulate plant growth, while Dmitri Nusinow described how rational design of phytochrome signaling can be used to increase yields of agriculturally important plant species. Clara Richet-Bourbousse described how chromatin organization influences chloroplast biogenesis, while Claudia Oecking presented data on the link between regulatory condensate formation and phototrophic responses. The session also included work from Elena Monte on deetiolation. 5. Retinal-Based Photoreception (Tuesday PM) Discussion Leader Peter Hegemann. The retinal session spanned applications of advanced spectroscopy (John Kennis, Keiichi Inoue) through time-resolved x-ray methods (Przemyslaw Nogly) to structural biology (Moran Shalev-Benami) for understanding opsin structure and function. Shalev-Benami presented structural work on completely novel algal rhodopsin complexes, whose architecture links channel function to light sensing in new ways. Kennis showed how the retinal cofactor actually undergoes multiple bond isomerizations as part of its photocycle in these bestrhodopsins. Katrina Forest told us about how microbial rhodopsins can act as "flipases" for lipids in the cell membrane. 6. Adaptations to Ultraviolet Light (Wed AM) Discussion Leader Alex Jones (National Physical Laboratory, United Kingdom). The UV light session was quite broad in scope with Gareth Jenkins reporting on the functional roles of the UV sensor UVR8 in plant cells, which was further elaborated by Roman Ulm's presentation about how UVR8 controls targeted protein degradation and couples to other photoreceptors in plants. Laura Jeffreys reported on how cobalamin containing proteins use UV light to send signals through novel mechanisms. This work was nicely balanced by Roseanne Sension, who has studied the photophysical details of cobalamin light activation by several ultra-fast spectroscopy techniques. 7. Light Entrainment of Circadian Clocks and Periodic Behavior (Wed PM) Discussion Leader Brian Zoltowski. This session focused on the light entrainment of rhythmic behavior. Akane Kubota discussed her work in studying how light and temperature combine to regulate periodic flowering in plants. Susan Golden presented studies on regulation of circadian gene expression in cyanobacteria, whereas Jay Dunlap highlighted similar themes in the model clock organism, Neurospora crassa. Joel Stavans provided a unique perspective of how a "one-dimensional organism" Anabeana, keeps time with respect to photo-cues. 8. Development and Applications of Optogenetic Tools (Thurs AM) Discussion Leader Michael Lin. Always a hot topic, the optogenetic tools session did not disappoint. Chandra Tucker gave updates on her ground-breaking work to turn plant CRY2 into an optogenetic tool for controlling protein condensates. Andrew Wooley presented new data on how cyanobacterial photochromes can be used to control protein interactions and in addition provided physical biochemical explanations of the key parameters to optimize in these applications. Johannes Vierock underscored the use of channel rhodopsins in controlling membrane potential, an important area for neuroscience and Bianxiao Cui showed us how pain responses can be modulated by optogenetic control over Trp channels. 9. Frontier Areas of Photosensory Reception (Thurs PM) Discussion Leader Eirini Kaiserli. The final session discussed novel findings and areas that stood on their own. Benedetta Mennucci reported on the application of cutting-edge computational tools to study the molecular mechanisms of a wide range of photoreceptors. Alexandra Worden described efforts to find entirely novel photoreceptors from environmental samples in the ocean, giving the impression that our current work only touches the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the biological diversity of photoreceptors. Finally, Yiyang Lin reported on efforts to build and engineer completely artificial, abiotic photosensory transduction systems based on biological principles. Gordon Research Seminar: The GRS was co-chaired by Dr. Ursula Vide (University of Cordoba, Spain) and Dr. Shi Feng (Cornell University, US). The seminar featured a key-note lecture by Kevin Gardner who covered his illustrious work on LOV-photoreceptors. Kevin also provided personal anecdotes and advice for young scientists. Two subsequent sessions featured talks by 9 trainees; these presentations were then followed with a poster session. Two established investigators at different stages of their careers: Prof. Jay Dunlap (Dartmouth Medical School, US) and Dr. Moran Shalev-Benami (Weizmann Institute of Science), hosted a mentoring session that focused on career development for young scientists.
Publications
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