Mary Dasso was a member of the organizing committee for the 2005 Biennial Nucleocytoplasmic Transport Meeting: Molecules, Mechanisms, and New Frontiers, which was held on October 21–25, 2005, at the Jekyll Island Club on Jekyll Island, Georgia, and cosponsored by NICHD and Emory University. About 100 senior investigators from a variety of prestigious American and international scientific institutions participated. Topics covered at this international meeting included nuclear pore structure, nuclear import and export, and regulation of transport. Given that nuclear transport is a major point of regulation in many signal transduction pathways and that, moreover, both the nuclear transport machinery and components of the nuclear pore have been genetically implicated in a variety of human diseases, such processes are of vital interest to biomedical scientists. Together with Yoshihiro Yoneda of Osaka University, Dr. Dasso also organized the International Symposium on Ran and the Cell Cycle, held on October 1–4, 2005, at the Awaji Island Resort near Osaka to celebrate the career and scientific achievements of Professor Takeharu Nishimoto. One hundred of his former laboratory members, collaborators, and scientific colleagues from around the world attended. The program was divided into sessions on the cell cycle and chromosomes, nuclear import and export of proteins and RNA, the nuclear envelope and nuclear pore complex, and RCC1 and chromatin.
Douglas Fields organized and chaired two international scientific meetings in 2005: Memory beyond the Synapse, held in April in Wye River, Maryland, concerned cell-cell signaling in synaptic plasticity; and
Purinergic Signalling in Neuron-Glia Interactions, which was sponsored by the Novartis Foundation and held in London in June 2005. The latter meeting centered on the role of ATP and related molecules in signaling between neurons and glia. New research has shown the importance of ATP and derivatives as extracellular signaling molecules mediating communication between neurons and glia. The conference explored the biological functions that may be controlled by ATP signaling between neurons and glia. The proceedings of both meetings will be published as books.
Lawrence Nelson organized the three-day Workshop on Reproduction and the Fragile X Premutation (see http://www.fraxa.org/pdf/News05v2.pdf), which was held on April 13–15, 2005, in Potomac, Maryland, under the auspices of NICHD; NIH’s Office of Rare Diseases and Office of Research on Women’s Health; NIMH; the American Society for Reproductive Medicine; the National Fragile X Foundation; the Fragile X Research Foundation (FRAXA); the National Society of Genetic Counselors; the Premature Ovarian Failure Support Group; the American Society of Human Genetics; the Society of General Internal Medicine; and NIEHS. Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is of great interest to the clinical and basic neuroscience community because it is the most common cause of inherited mental retardation as well as the most common known genetic cause of autism. Furthermore, more subtle abnormalities in the responsible gene are associated with other disorders such as spontaneous premature ovarian failure, emotional problems, neuropsychological deficits, and neurodegeneration. Participants reported on the effect of the FMR1 premutation on ovarian function and drew up recommendations with regard to directions for future research.
Karel Pacak presided over the committee that organized the 1st International Symposium on Pheochromocytoma, which was held in Bethesda, Maryland, October 20–23, 2005, under NICHD and NCI sponsorship (see http://members.aol.com/ThreePeb/news2005.html). The purpose of the symposium was to provide an international forum for investigators, clinicians, and other healthcare professionals from around the world, all with a common interest in pheochromocytoma, in order to facilitate collaborations, interdisciplinary studies, and concerted, comprehensive approaches to resolving the outstanding scientific and medical problems associated with pheochromocytoma. The symposium also provided a forum to improve awareness and understanding of the tumor and associated conditions among all involved parties, including those responsible for setting research priorities and making funding decisions, as well as for patients to strengthen their support groups.
Yun-Bo Shi, together with Dr. Alex M. Schreiber of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Baltimore, organized the Symposium on Eukaryotic Gene Regulation—in Honor of Dr. Donald D. Brown. The symposium, held on September 24, 2005, at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Baltimore, covered current research on developmental, molecular, and biochemical mechanisms of eukaryotic gene regulation. Dr. Brown has made and continues to make pioneering contributions to the field.
Brant Weinstein organized the Strategic Conference of Zebrafish Investigators held on September 15–17, 2005, in Maine (see http://www.mdibl.org/courses/zebrafish05.shtml). The conference brought together leading international zebrafish and medaka scientific researchers. The fish research community is growing rapidly, and the goals of the meeting were to foster increased communication between primary investigators working on disparate research topics and to promote cohesiveness of the community as a whole. Dr. Weinstein is also a co-organizer of the Second Developmental Vascular Biology Workshop to be held in Asilomar (Monterey), California, on February 1–4, 2006 (see http://www.navbo.org/dvbWorkshop.html).
Alfred Yergey was a member of the organizing committee for an NIH Symposium III—The Challenge of Molecular Dynamics, held on the NIH campus on April 15, 2005 (see http://www.protigsymposium.com/program.aspx). This well-attended, one-day symposium on molecular dynamics brought together internationally recognized leaders, including Mark Ellisman of the University of California San Diego, Trisha Davis of the University of Washington, Thomas Kodadek of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Alma Burlingame of the University of California San Francisco, Donald Hunt of the University of Virginia, and William Pearson of the University of Virginia.