Conference: 2022 International Conference on ESCRT Biology

The meeting aims to provide a unique open, inclusive, and interactive forum for the international and domestic research community working on a group of proteins (ESCRT proteins) that regulate many basic functions of cell biology. The conference will provide an effective learning environment for all participants, especially undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows.

Participants will also have great opportunities to mix with researchers from very different disciplines and fields of biology who are all drawn together by a common interest in ESCRT structures and functions. NSF funds will be used to increase the breadth of participation of young researchers. The meeting will include oral presentations, poster sessions, and time for informal discussions.

The specific objectives of this conference are: 1) To provide an open and inclusive forum for oral presentations from researchers at all levels of their careers. Ample time will be devoted for discussion. 2) To provide an opportunity for all participants, specially to those from under-represented groups in science, to present and discuss their results in evening poster sessions. 3) To offer ample opportunities for networking and social interactions through shared meals and social activities.

The Endosomal Complexes Required for Transport (ESCRT) machinery comprises different factors (~30 proteins in humans; 45 in plants) that carry out membrane remodeling and fission reactions throughout the cell. The past decade has seen an explosion in the number of processes now known to be ESCRT-mediated, including endosomal protein trafficking, cytokinetic abscission, closure of the post-mitotic nuclear envelope, enveloped virus budding, exosome biogenesis, neuronal pruning, and membrane repair.

Furthermore, ESCRT-like systems have recently been discovered in archaea and bacteria, making this one of the most highly conserved machines in nature. As a result, the ESCRT biology community continues to grow. Despite these advances, a number of fundamental questions remain unanswered, including exactly how the ESCRT machinery constricts and mediates membrane fission, and the biological mechanisms and consequences of many ESCRT-mediated processes.

The time is therefore again ripe to bring together the different segments of our community to ensure that biophysicists are talking to cell biologists, biochemists are learning from plant biologists, and so forth. Toward this end, we propose a multidisciplinary conference that will cover all key aspects of ESCRT biology and will include sessions on the following topics: 1) The biophysics of ESCRT-mediated membrane fission, 2) The evolution of filament-mediated membrane remodeling, 3) ESCRTs in cell division, 4) ESCRTs in membrane repair, 5) ESCRTs in disease, and 6) ESCRT machinery in other systems (plants, archaea).

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.