Conference Description
The Cellular and Molecular Fungal Biology GRC is a premier, international scientific conference focused on advancing the frontiers of science through the presentation of cutting-edge and unpublished research, prioritizing time for discussion after each talk and fostering informal interactions among scientists of all career stages. The conference program includes an array of speakers and discussion leaders from institutions and organizations worldwide, concentrating on the latest developments in the field. The conference is five days long and held in a remote location to increase the sense of camaraderie and create scientific communities, with lasting collaborations and friendships. In addition to premier talks, the conference has designated time for poster sessions from individuals of all career stages, and afternoon free time and communal meals allow for informal networking opportunities with leaders in the field.
Celebrating 50 years of the GRC Cellular and Molecular Fungal Biology series, the 2026 conference will focus upon fungal evolution, across multiple scales, as means to dissect the remarkable complexity of fungal phenotypic and genomic diversity. Convening experts from all career stages and multiple sub-disciplines, this conference will explore drivers of fungal evolution including the influences of environments, resources, microbial communities and competition, as well as the cutting-edge technologies and approaches employed to study them. The topic of fungal evolution will be addressed from multiple perspectives: metabolic, cellular, intra-organismal, functional genomics, environments and ecosystems. Discussions will seek to identify major unanswered questions in the field and how the rapid acceleration of digital technologies is likely to shape new ways of tackling them, looking forward to the next 50 years of cellular and molecular fungal biology.
The conference will consist of nine sessions, on the topics listed below. The conference chair is currently developing their preliminary program, which will include the names of the invited speakers and discussion leaders for each of these sessions. The preliminary program will be available by September 24, 2025. Please check back for updates.
