Molecular Chaperones
& Stress Responses
April 30 - May 4, 2008
Abstract Deadline: February 6, 2008

Organizers:
James Bardwell, HHMI/University of Michigan
F. Ulrich Hartl, Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Germany
David Ron, New York University School of Medicine

past program

You are cordially invited to participate in the meeting on Molecular Chaperones and Stress Responses which will be held at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 26 years after the inaugural meeting in this series. The meeting will begin on Wednesday, April 30, 2008, and will conclude with lunch on Sunday, May 4.

The meeting will feature advances in the areas of structure and mechanism of action of molecular chaperones; mechanisms of induction of the stress response; the role of chaperones in protein degradation, and chaperone function in disease, development and organellar homeostasis. Chaperones are intimately involved in basic biological processes such as protein translation, folding, complex assembly and disassembly, translocation across membranes and protein degradation.

The contribution of heat shock proteins, to protein folding in vivo across the entire proteome will be described alongside function of specialized chaperones with more limited clientele. The interactions of chaperones and unfolded and misfolded proteins will be discussed in molecular and atomic detail. At the cellular level, the interactions between chaperones in the formation of protein folding networks will be discussed and at the physiological level the impact of altered chaperone buffering capacity on organeller, cellular and organismal function will be discussed.

Sessions & Discussion Leaders:
• Chaperone Biochemistry & Protein Folding
Johannes Buchner (Chair), Bernd Bukau, Sheena Radford
Wayne Hendrickson

• Chaperone Function in Disease and Development
Len Neckers (Chair), Judith Frydman

• Regulation of the Stress Response
Carol Gross (Chair), Jon Weissman

• Quality Control & Protein Trafficking
Art Johnson (Chair), Kazuhiro Nagata, Nicholaus Pfaner

• Cellular Response to Stress
Rick Morimoto (Chair), Sue Wickner

• Chaperone & Proteolysis
Dan Finley (Chair), Tania Baker

• Diseases of Protein Misfolding
Dennis Selkoe (Chair), Hideki Taguchi

The format of the meeting will include morning and evening sessions consisting of 2/3 25 minute talks and between six to eight or short talks per session, selected from the abstracts, principally on unpublished work. In addition, there will be three poster sessions, held in the afternoons. The organizers will decide the suitability of each abstract for oral or poster presentation, but please specify if you prefer a poster.

We are eager to have as many young people as possible attend since they are likely to benefit most from this meeting. We have applied for funds from government and industry to partially support graduate students and postdocs. Apply in writing to beavers@cshl.edu stating need for financial support - preference is given to those submitting abstracts.

Status of abstracts will be posted on our web site as soon as decisions have been made by the Organizers. Please bring this notice to the attention of any of your colleagues who may be interested. We hope to see you at Cold Spring Harbor in May.

This conference is supported in part by funds provided by:
National Institute of Neurological Diseases & Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health

We have funds to provide partial scholarships for individuals who are US citizens/permanent residents from minority groups under-represented in the life sciences. Please provide justification in writing to beavers@cshl.edu and state your financial needs. Preference will be given to those applying who submit abstracts to the meeting.

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Regular packages are all inclusive and cover registration, food, housing, parking, wine-and-cheese party, lobster banquet, etc. No Housing packages include all costs except housing. Full payment is due 4 weeks prior to the meeting.