2023 Bacterial Cell Biology and Development GRC

The first Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Bacterial Cell Biology and Development will be held at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, NH, from June 4-9, 2023. This meeting will be attended by graduate students and postdocs, and will bring together senior and junior researchers from broad ranging disciplines to discuss and advance our understanding of all aspects of the machinery and function of bacterial cells, with sessions on cell division, cell fate and decision-making, cellular organization, morphology and dynamics, cell envelope structures, cellular motility, and cell-cell interactions. The application of novel light and electron microscopic techniques will be presented and discussed, as well as the ability to perform single-cell studies on bacteria. The interactions of cell biologists, microbiologists, biochemists, and biophysicists will increase understanding of these cells, and engage with and train junior scientists (graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and beginning assistant professors). This engagement is a priority of the conference, along with extensive poster sessions to allow interactions between senior and junior scientists. NSF support will be used to defray registration fee and/or travel costs to allow attendance of participants from these stages of their careers, especially for members of groups historically under-represented in this field. The science presented at the Bacterial Cell Biology and Development GRC will cover the biochemistry and cell biology of a wide variety of bacterial phyla, including talks on the asymmetry and dynamics of intracellular organization, membrane biogenesis, compartments within bacterial cells, cell wall mechanics and biogenesis, and the wide range of structures, developmental strategies, biochemistry, and movement of many different bacterial species, including free-living and commensal bacteria, and animal and plant pathogens. The diversity of disciplines represented among invited speakers and discussion leaders - ranging from genetics, cell biology and biochemistry to biophysics, bioinformatics, and modeling - and abundant opportunities for interactions among all conference participants is expected to inspire innovative thinking and potentiate new perspectives and research directions in the field. In addition to advancing fundamental understanding of bacterial cell biology and development, given the relative simplicity and modularity of bacterial systems, the science presented at this conference may be leveraged to advance synthetic biology and other industrial applications. Education of a wide range of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will increase the critical mass of future independent investigators studying these organisms, which are critical to understanding animal and plant health, ecosystems, and the environment. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.