Conference: 2024 Cytoskeletal Motors Gordon Research Conference and Seminar

This award will support the 2024 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and Seminar (GRS) on Cytoskeletal Motors, to be held July 7-12, 2024 at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, ME. This meeting will be attended by graduate students, postdocs, and junior and senior faculty researchers from broad-ranging disciplines to discuss and advance our understanding of all aspects of the structure and function of these protein engines that move the cell itself as well as the various structure such as mitochondria and chromosomes within the cell. The interactions of cell biologists, geneticists, biochemists, and biophysicists will increase understanding of these motors and how they function to maintain cell structure, and the senior scientists will engage with and train junior scientists. This engagement is a priority of the conference and especially the seminar, in talks and poster sessions to allow all participants to display and discuss their research. NSF support will be used to defray registration fees and/or travel costs to allow attendance of participants from early stages of their careers, and for members of groups under-represented in this field. This meeting will be attended by graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and senior researchers to discuss our understanding of all aspects of the motors that drive movement along actin and microtubule tracks of organelles and chromosomes to where they are needed within cells, as well as motility of the entire cell. Sessions will focus on recent advances and new understanding of topics such as “Movements Driven by Molecular Motors and Dynamic Filament Polymerization,” “Filaments and Motors as Active Matter,” “Motor Regulation: From Adaptors to Autoinhibition,” “Filament Diversity, Dynamics and Cross Talk,” and “High Resolution Views of Motors.” In addition to formal talks, engagement will be facilitated by two poster sessions to stimulate interactions between researchers. NSF support will be used to defray travel costs to allow attendance of participants from early stages of their careers, especially for members of groups underrepresented in this field. This award is funded by the Cellular Dynamics and Function Cluster of the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences in the Directorate for Biological Sciences. 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.