Applications for this meeting must be submitted by July 17, 2011. Please apply early, as some meetings become oversubscribed (full) before this deadline. If the meeting is oversubscribed, it will be stated here. Applications will still be accepted for oversubscribed meetings. However, they will only be considered by the Conference Chair if more seats become available due to cancellations.
The Cell-Cell Fusion Gordon Research Conference will be held in conjunction with the
Cell-Cell Fusion Gordon-Kenan Research Seminar. Those interested in attending both meetings must submit an application for the GKRS in addition to an application for the GRC. Please refer to the Cell-Cell Fusion GKRS web page for more information.
This third Cell-Cell Fusion Gordon Conference covers advances in plasma membrane fusion during fertilization, organ development, viral infection, regeneration and cancer metastasis. Our energetic, friendly and young community is entering a particularly fascinating phase as the basic principles of fusion emerging from theoretical analysis and studies on viral entry and intracellular trafficking start to be applied to understanding the functions and mechanisms of cell-cell fusion in development and disease. Important processes such as sexual reproduction, formation of bones, muscles, eye lens, stem cells, placenta, rare genetic diseases and the invasion of cells by pathogens will be covered in nine state-of-the-art sessions. This progress is being helped by classic and new methodology, including high throughput screening, super resolution microscopy and single-molecule biophysical methods. These exciting developments, along with the latest progress on the mechanisms and applications of cell membrane fusion in vitro and in vivo, will be covered by the invited speakers. In addition we will have two round-table discussions on hotly debated topics that will encourage wide participation and scholarly organized discussions.
All applicants, especially those from under-represented demographics (i.e. women, minorities, junior investigators), are strongly encouraged to submit a brief abstract describing their work, and to indicate whether they would like their abstract to be considered for one of the eighteen short talks which are divided between all sessions.
We intend to select short talks from the abstracts in mid-May, 2011 and ask that applicants who would like their abstract to be considered for a talk to submit their application by May 1st, 2011.
A list of preliminary session topics and speakers is currently being developed by the Conference Chair and will be available by December 1, 2010. Please check back for updates.