GORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCE

on Macromolecular Organization and Cell Function

August 6-11, 2000, Queen’s College, Oxford, GB, EU

This Conference was dedicated to the memory of Paul A. Srere

The Gordon Research conference on Macromolecular Organization and Cell Function has met regularly since 1987. The 2000 conference was the eighth conference in this series. It was organized by Natalie S. Cohen and Hans V. Westerhoff and was supported generously by various organisations. Both this conference and the two previous conferences were held at Queens College, Oxford University, U.K. The previous one took place in September 1998 and was chaired by John Wilson (East Lansing, MI, USA) and Douglas B. Kell (Aberystwyth, GB, EU). The upcoming one may again meet in Oxford, in the beginning of August of 2002, if the Gordon Research Conferences Council grants the request made by the co-chairs of the 2000 conference following a unanimous vote at the business meeting. It will be organized by its co-chairs Brenda Winkel-Shirley and Kevin M. Brindle, assisted by the newly elected vice-chairs Judit Ovadi (website, ovadi@enzim.hu) and Christopher D. Hardin. These vice-chairs will organize the 2004 Conference in this series.

For a look at the participants of the 2000 meeting please click here, for their names, please click here. (For an off-the-record report, click this......).

This conference focuses on the organization of intracellular macromolecules, the principles and mechanisms underlying that organization, and the essential role of such organization in cell function and its regulation. For programme see: http://www.bio.vu.nl/grc2000/program.html. A journal covering the topic of the conference is launched at this 2000 meeting. Its first issue is scheduled to appear April 2001. It will be called BioComplexity (biocomplexity.html). All conference participants will receive the first issue of the journal as soon as it appears.

The first conferences concentrated on the role of enzyme organization in metabolic regulation, but the subject matter has greatly broadened over the years, so that it now includes virtually all aspects of cell function: Macromolecular organization is critical not only for the maintenance of various cell structures, but also for chromatin remodeling, transcription, RNA editing and transport, nuclear import/export, translation, protein degradation, protein folding, cytoskeletal function, organelle transport, signal transduction, metabolic pathways, and apoptosis. Conference topics include the mechanisms of macromolecular interactions, and the responses of such mechanisms to changes in metabolic or hormonal status. The functional implications of interactions, such as channeling of metabolic intermediates or of signaling molecules, or the translocation of cellular components are of central interest, as are the characteristics of macromolecular complexes, both stable and transient. Participants have emphasized the fact that many interactions may be altered or even lost when cells or tissues are disrupted for study, and a major interest is the development and application of methods to analyze interactions in vivo, i.e., to enter the living cell.

Because of these wide concerns and interests, and the importance of macromolecular interactions to so many different aspects of cell function, this is an interdisciplinary conference. It attracts not only experimental scientists with interests and expertise ranging from biochemistry, cell biology, and molecular biology to biophysics, physics, and instrumentation, but also theoreticians and modelers. The interdisciplinary atmosphere produces excellent discussions and scientific interactions that are stimulating and highly valued by the participants.

References to the conference subject matter.

 

The conference focuses on discussion of preliminary data, new concepts, and new methods. How?

  1. In the cloisters of Queens college during the extensive poster sessions
  2. Some posters will also be presented in brief oral presentations, in order to provoke plenary discussions. And there will be a concluding poster discussion session.
  3. There will be a number of key and controversial lectures. The formal sessions will cover a variety of subjects all addressing the central theme of the conference: understanding macromolecular organization in the context of cell function.
  4. Immediately after each talk there will be a 10-15 minutes discussion period.
  5. After each session there will be a plenary discussion period.
  6. There will be mixed beer-science discussion sessions late p.m. in the bar of the college.

 

Link to programme and additional information.

Application form for the coming conference is located at:

APPLICATION FORM

The 2000 conference was organized with the help of:

Frank Bruggeman (WebsiteAmsterdam)

Pedro Mendes, Douglas Kell (previous website)

Carl Storm and staff (GRC office)

Jeannet Wijker (BioCentrum Amsterdam)

Previous Chairs, in particular James Clegg, Murray Deutscher, Douglas Kell, Rickey Welch, John Wilson

Vice-chairs: Brenda Winkel-Shirley, Kevin M. Brindle

 

Sponsoring organizations include:

Ares-Serono Foundation

Netherlands' Organization for Scientific Research - Earth and Life Sciences (NWO-ALW)

BioCentrum Amsterdam (BCA)

BioCentrum Amsterdam-IMBS

BioCentrum Amsterdam-SILS

Gordon Research Foundation

International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB)

National Science Foundation - USA

Merck & Co, Inc. - USA

Biomacromolecules, a journal of the American Chemical Society

Trends in Biochemical Sciences (Elsevier Science)

Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute

National Institutes of Health - USA

European Journal of Biochemistry/Blackwell Science

PURAC-CSM - NL

BioComplexity: the new journal (Kluwer Academic Publishers)

Unilever Research Vlaardingen

 

Co chair persons:

Natalie S. Cohen (ncohen@hsc.usc.edu; http://www.usc.edu/hsc/medicine/gradpgms/ncohen.html)

Hans V. Westerhoff (hw@bio.vu.nl; http://www.bio.vu.nl/html/cell_phy.html)

 

Vice-cochairs (=chair persons of 2002 conference):

Brenda Winkel-Shirley (winkel@vt.edu, article, lab website)

Kevin M. Brindle (k.m.brindle@bioc.cam.ac.uk)