All organisms are exposed to harsh conditions. These harsh conditions include environmentally imposed stresses such as elevated temperature and irradiation, physiological stresses such as rapid cellular proliferation, oxidative stresses due to metabolic reactions, and pathophysiological stresses such as pharmacological agents, infection, and inflammation. Even normal developmental or nutritional changes exert stresses as systems temporarily depart from and try to re-establish homeostasis. If unmitigated, stress can lead to protein misfolding and aggregation, and cell death. Recent studies suggest that the ability to sense and respond to stress is critical for normal cell growth and development, and helps protect against diseases that include cancer, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease (e.g., diabetes) and liver disease, and protein folding diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and prion-based disease. Studies in model systems have helped establish these principles and suggest a correlation between longevity and the ability to mount stress responses. There is also an increasing appreciation that the stress response can be pharmacologically modulated, and thus diseases that arise from these phenomena might be selectively targeted.

The GRC meeting will highlight cutting-edge advances in these fields. As in the past, we will continue to emphasize vigorous discussions of recent exciting developments related to several areas of research. These include developments in stress sensing, signaling and gene expression. We will also focus on diseases of protein folding and conformation, the roles of stress genes in metabolism, growth and development, stress gene modulation of infection and pathophysiological states, the cell biology of stress, the chemical modulation of stress pathways, and the roles of stress in aging. Many opportunities will be provided for established and new investigators and for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to engage in detailed but informal discussions. We seek to enhance the dissemination of new information and the formation of new collaborations. In turn, this will lead to advances and broaden our understanding of the role of stress proteins in human health, aging, and disease.

The Proteins Gordon Research Conference has established a rich history of bringing together experimental and computational biochemists, biophysicists and biologists who study the many aspects of proteins science, including protein structure, folding, function and dynamics. Recent Proteins GRC programs have reflected a current broad interest in the properties and function of proteins in the cellular environment. The 2009 Proteins GRC will continue this focus on post-reductionist protein science, but will also highlight the contributions of classical protein science.

Topics will include recent and unpublished results describing the chemical and physical basis of protein structure and interaction networks, in-cell visualization of proteins, the role of co-solutes in structure and stability, the functional consequences of structural heterogeneity, among others. Discussion leaders with a substantial history in this field will be invited to provide their own historical and scientific perspective on each session topic and presented results.

This conference will thus emphasize the field’s substantial knowledge about the physical and chemical properties of proteins, while encouraging the application of this knowledge to understand how proteins behave and function in their biological contexts. The diverse presentations of new science and historically-informed discussions will provide researchers at all levels - institutional and industrial research scientists, faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students - with a rigorous and comprehensive view of contemporary protein science.

The 2009 GRC-sponsored meeting on Antigen Cross Presentation will present cutting-edge research in the cellular and molecular pathways that regulate the transfer of antigens from the cells of the body to the professional antigen-presenting cells of the immune system. The focus of the conference will span several diverse scientific fields, including cell biology, cell death, dendritic cell biology, protein folding, lipid biophysics, signal transduction, antigen processing and presentation, and imaging. The conference will feature both basic and translational researchers, and will provide opportunities for junior scientists and graduate students to present their work in poster format and exchange ideas with leaders in the field. Some poster presenters will be selected for short talks. The structure of this conference, with programmed discussion sessions as well as opportunities for informal gatherings in the afternoons and evenings, and its remarkable location will provide a unique environment for scientists from different disciplines to brainstorm and promotes cross-disciplinary collaborations in the various research areas represented. Advances in this field will facilitate the strategic manipulation of the immune system in the setting of vaccination, tumor immunotherapy, and chronic viral infections, as well as defining new approaches to the regulation of autoimmunity.