The Gordon Research Seminar on Proprotein Processing, Trafficking & Secretion is a unique forum for graduate students, post-docs, and other scientists with comparable levels of experience and education to present and exchange new data and cutting edge ideas.

The 2012 meeting will be the first Gordon Research Seminar on this subject, which will focus on recent research in the cellular and molecular events in the secretory pathway, including post-translational processing, trafficking and secretion of bioactive peptides and other secretory pathway proteins, as well as the significance of these processes to cellular physiology and human disease. This meeting includes interest in protein folding events in the endoplasmic reticulum; post-translational processing steps, including structural, biochemical, proteomic and cellular analyses of proteolysis and peptide-terminal modifications; intra-Golgi and post-Golgi sorting events, including targeting to secretory granules; mechanisms of secretory granule formation and trafficking; and molecular mechanisms of regulated and constitutive secretion. An additional important dimension is on pathologies and diseases whose underlying basis relates to protein processing and/or trafficking (e.g., cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, hypercholesterolemia, bacterial toxin activation, viral glycoprotein maturation, and others).

The collegial and inter-disciplinary atmosphere of this Seminar, with programmed discussion sessions as well as opportunities for informal gatherings in the afternoons and evenings, provides an excellent opportunity for young scientists from different disciplines to develop collaborations. The mentorship component of the seminar will present a forum where young scientists can discuss and learn about future job opportunities.