Conference: 2024 Photosensory Receptors and Signal Transduction GRC/GRS: Light-Dependent Molecular Mechanism, Cellular Response and Organismal Behavior

Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Photosensory Receptors and Signal Transduction will be held on March 2-3rd (GRS), 2024 and March 3-8th (GRC), 2024 in Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco Via Giovanni Pascoli Lucca (Barga), Italy. This conference will bring together senior and junior researchers from broad ranging disciplines to discuss and advance our understanding of photosensory systems in biology. Understanding how light signals are transmitted has the potential to improve crop yields through optimized photosynthesis and plant growth, allow the development of new optogenetic tools for cell biology and neuroscience and treat diseases in humans associated with vision loss and mood disorders. The themes of the GRC and GRS have been chosen to emphasize the most important, universal questions underlying these problems and to stimulate the exchange of ideas among diverse researchers to solve them. The Program includes 45 speakers from 17 countries in GRC and 13 speakers and three mentors in GRS. Additional talks, selected from submitted abstracts, will be given 15-minute time slots. Since GRS is immediately followed by the regular GRC conference, many attendees of GRS attendees may stay for GRC sessions to have opportunity to mingle and interact with senior investigators. The meeting will provide an opportunity to young scientists, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows from diverse backgrounds and from underrepresented groups to be trained in interdisciplinary areas and interact with the current leaders of the field. This meeting was supported by the Molecular Biophysics Program in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences. 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.