Conference Description
This conference has been deferred to 2023 due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Please check back soon for the 2023 schedule.
The 2021 Gordon Conference on Molecular Mechanisms in Evolution will assemble experts in molecular, medical, and evolutionary biology to present the latest findings and diverse perspectives on the molecular basis of evolutionary change.
Molecular biology and evolution are the two fundamental unifying principles of life on earth. It is only through the combination of knowledge from these two disciplines that we can (i) unravel how the molecular making of organisms allowed them to face their past environments, (ii) understand the challenges imposed by present-day evolution occurring in immune cells, cancer tissues or microbial populations including pathogens, (iii) predict the future responses of organisms in the face of climate changes and other human-driven selective pressures. To promote that combination of disciplines, the conference program will cover a wide range of topics including the evolution of proteins and RNAs, the evolution of mutation and recombination rates, non-genetic variation and inheritance, metabolic evolution, the making of complex traits, microbial and cancer evolution caught in the act.
The principal goal of this GRC is to encourage and nurture a community of researchers, spanning several formal disciplines, with a shared interest in the molecular basis of evolutionary change. Evolutionary scientists include ecologists, geneticists, evolutionary, cellular, and molecular biologists, physicists, and applied mathematicians. With such a wide range of disciplines, it is easy to miss important discoveries and the invention of new techniques that lie outside one's own, narrow discipline.
This conference will have an engaging atmosphere for open and creative discussions to stimulate collaborations among scientists. As well as invited speakers, we will have 20 short talks chosen from submitted abstracts (primarily postdocs and graduate students) and poster sessions. The goal of the short talks and posters is to give young scientists and their ideas access to the opinions and suggestions of the more experienced scientists who are invited speakers and chairs.
