Meeting report: membrane proteins in health and disease.

This article summarizes the scientific presentations made at a Canadian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology Symposium on "Membrane Proteins in Health and Diseases" and two satellite meetings on "Bicarbonate Transporters" and "Nucleoside Transporters" held in Banff, Alberta, 20-24 March 2002. Membrane proteins are encoded by about 1/3 of genes and are involved in a wide range of essential functions, including the transport of nutrients, ions, and waste products across biological membranes. Mutations or changes in the expression of these genes cause an equally wide range of diseases. Membrane proteins are also common drug targets or provide drug entry mechanisms. The importance of membrane proteins in biology and medicine was highlighted by the presentations made at this exciting meeting by an international group of experts.     

Report on the Bicarbonate Transport Satellite Meeting at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology

The Bicarbonate Transport Meeting was held as a satellite meeting of the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology (CSBMCB): Membrane Proteins in Health and Disease. The meeting covered the modern history of bicarbonate transporter proteins and brought together the major workers in the field. Ron Kopito recounted the story of the first determination of the amino acid sequence for a bicarbonate transporter, AE1/Band 3, 25?years earlier while working with Harvey Lodish at Harvard, while Tomohiro Yamaguchi and Teruhisa Hirai presented up-to-date data on AE1 structure obtained using electron crystallography. The meeting further spanned the spectrum of bicarbonate transporters, with sessions devoted to Cl-/HCO3- exchangers, Na+/HCO3- co-transporters, the link to carbonic anhydrase, and the SLC26 family of bicarbonate transporters expressed broadly in humans, yeast, and bacteria.     

2007 Annual progress report synopsis of the Center for Structures of Membrane Proteins

A synopsis of the 2007 annual progress report for the Center for Structures of Membrane Proteins, a specialized center of the Protein Structure Initiative.     

Endocytosis and signaling: a relationship under development

The ability to internalize macromolecules by endocytosis is a property of all eukaryotic cells. Frontline research on endocytosis has been presented in a successful series of biannual meetings in Europe. This year's meeting on "Membrane Dynamics in Endocytosis" was held September 13-18 in Acquafredda di Maratea, on the coast of southern Italy. Four key questions were addressed: What are the molecular mechanisms of endocytic membrane trafficking? How does endocytosis modulate receptor signaling and vice versa? What is the importance of endocytosis during development? How do endocytic organelles contribute to immunity or susceptibility to pathogens?     

Editor's column: Symposia and congresses

Symposia and congresses (and similarly named conferences) provide a specific medium for scientific communication that should complement, not duplicate, published or circularized reporting. The total expenditure for presentation of results at a session of the International Geological Congress is at least in the region of 8 million dollars, and there are hundreds of smaller geological meetings every year. Progress in finding rational forms for meetings is slow, and elementary deficiencies in meeting organization are incessantly repeated. The fact that meetings have established themselves as a very viable institution in science provides no excuse for not watching and reviewing their structure and economy as vigilantly as, for example, publications.     

Barrels XXII meeting report: Barrels blow into the Windy City

The 22nd Annual Barrels Meeting blew into Evanston, near the Windy City, in November 2009 as the meeting was hosted on the Evanston, IL campus of Northwestern University. The longest running satellite meeting to the Society for Neuroscience Meeting annually brings together researchers from around the world focused on the development, function, behavior, and physiology of the rodent whisker-to-barrel system and other associated cortical and subcortical areas. The 2009 edition of the meeting was focused on three central themes: the molecular development and developmental plasticity in barrel cortex, optical analysis of barrel cortex function, and the coding of touch. The main symposia were complemented by short talks, data blitz sessions, and a poster session.     

Cardiac mechano-electric feedback: past,present, and prospect

Mechanical effects on heart rhythm have been known to the clinical community for well over a century, and documented cases include both arrhythmogenic and pro-rhythmic consequences of mechanical stimulation. The intracardiac pathway that leads from changes in the cardiac mechanical environment to altered electrical activity is referred to as mechano-electric feedback (MEF). Fundamental research into the mechanisms underlying cardiac MEF is ‘engineering-intensive’, and much of the current insight would have been impossible without the introduction of novel techniques for the study of isolated cardiac cells.

Clinical and basic research into MEF have developed over different time scales, often uninformed of each other, and utilizing disparate concepts and terminology. Bridging the gap between the two domains is not straightforward, as physicians and scientists tend to publish in different journals and attend different meetings. There is, however, a growing interest in ‘re-uniting’ the clinic and basic MEF research, as witnessed by an increasing number of dedicated journal issues and international meetings, including events hosted by major European and American professional organisations such as the ESC and NASPE. Last year alone saw an international workshop on Cardiac MEF & Arrhythmias at Oxford, as well as dedicated sessions at NASPE's 23rd annual meeting in San Diego, CardioStim 2002 in Nice, and the UK Physiological Society meeting in Leeds.

This volume of Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology incorporates clinical and basic science results, and it is fitting that its publication coincides with a special session on cardiac MEF at the 2003 meeting of NASPE.     

Adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate-regulated phosphoprotein system of neuronal membranes. I. Solubilization, purification, and some properties of an endogenous phosphoprotein.

An endogenous substrate for adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate-dependent protein kinase has been solubilized, and purified about 5,000-fold to apparent homogeneity, from a particulate fraction of bovine cerebral cortex enriched in synaptic membranes. This endogenous substrate, referred to as Protein I, is apparently specific to nervous tissue, and is composed of two types of polypeptides, present in a proportion of 1 (Protein Ia, 86,000 daltons) to 2 (Protein Ib, 80,000 daltons). In the presence of cAMP-dependent Protein I kinase purified from the same membrane fractions, Proteins Ia and Ib incorporated 0.83 and 0.81 mol of phosphate into serine/mol of peptide, respectively. Proteins Ia and Ib have similar amino acid compositions and have isoelectric points of 10.3 and 10.2, respectively. Both types of polypeptide have a relatively high content of glycine and proline, and both are degraded to a peptide of 48,000 daltons by highly purified collagenase, suggesting that Proteins Ia and Ib contain some sequences similar to those observed in collagen. The sedimentation coefficient of Protein Ia and Protein Ib was determined to be 2.9 S. The data suggest that both Protein Ia and Protein Ib have an elongated shape.     

Direct protein microsequencing from Immobilon-P Transfer Membrane

Proteins separated by electrophoresis and electroblotted onto Immobilon-P Transfer Membrane can be sequenced directly in the gas-phase sequencer. Protein bands visualized by Coomassie Blue are placed in the sequencer cartridge without the addition of polybrene. Preconditioning sequencer cycles are eliminated, reducing reagent use and instrument operating time. The average initial yield for protein spotted or blotted onto the polyvinylidene-based membrane was determined to be 70 to 80% using 125I-labeled beta-lactoglobulin. Preliminary data indicate that proteins hydrolyzed in situ on Immobilon-P can further be characterized by amino acid compositional analysis.     

Meeting Report: "Metagenomics, Metadata and Meta-analysis" (M3) Special Interest Group at ISMB 2009

This report summarizes the proceedings of the "Metagenomics, Metadata and Meta-analysis" (M3) Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting held at the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology 2009 conference. The Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC) hosted this meeting to explore the bottlenecks and emerging solutions for obtaining biological insights through large-scale comparative analysis of metagenomic datasets. The M3 SIG included 16 talks, half of which were selected from submitted abstracts, a poster session and a panel discussion involving members of the GSC Board. This report summarizes this one-day SIG, attempts to identify shared themes and recapitulates community recommendations for the future of this field. The GSC will also host an M3 workshop at the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) in January 2010. Further information about the GSC and its range of activities can be found at http://gensc.org/.     

From proteins to systems: the British Society for Proteomics Research (BSPR) meeting 2005

This report describes the highlights of the second scientific meeting of the British Society for Proteome Research (BSPR), jointly organised with the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), and held at The Genome Centre, Cambridge UK in July 2005. The theme of the meeting was "From Proteins to Systems" covering many diverse aspects of proteomics, bioinformatics and systems biology.     

Purine and Pyrimidine Metabolism: a Firm Basis for a Transformed Society

Purines and pyrimidines form the backbone of DNA and RNA. Hence, modification of purine and pyrimidine metabolism can have serious effects on normal functioning of a subject. These aspects formed the main topics for an International and a European Series of meetings, dedicated to the metabolism in man. In order to streamline the organization of these meetings the European Society was transformed to an International society: the Purine and Pyrimidine Society (www.ppsociety.org). This special issue of Nucleosides, Nucleotides, and, Nucleic, Acids highlights the last European meeting in Prague, focusing on inborn errors, cardiac diseases, inflammatory diseases, rheumatology, haematology, cancer, virology, genetic polymorphism, specific methodology, and, of course, metabolism. The meeting in Chicago in 2007 will be the first meeting of the Purine and Pyrimidine Society.     

Interventional cardiology and general cardiology: divided by a common speciality? From George Bernard Shaw. America and England are two countries divided by a common language.

For a couple of years now, the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) consists of two separate meetings: the conventional ACC meeting and the SCAI-ACCi2 (Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions) meeting. The SCAI-ACCi2 meeting is specifically intended for interventional cardiologists and in order to attend the meeting one has to pay either a special entrance fee for this meeting or an additional fee to attend both meetings. Even Fellows of the ACC are not allowed into this dedicated interventional meeting (unless they pay the additional entrance fee). At the ACC.08 meeting in Chicago this year, the general cardiologist (ACC.08) could be recognised by a blue badge and the interventional cardiologist by a yellow badge (SCAI.ACCi2).     

Special interest subgroups at the ASCB: Regulation of actin dynamics by ADF/cofilins in vivo and in vitro

The annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is a large and diverse gathering. At last year's meeting*, there were over 8000 attendees, and the topics discussed covered many areas of cell biology. It would be impossible to cover the entire meeting within a trends in CELL BIOLOGY report, so instead we are focusing on an aspect of it that provided some of the most interesting and fruitful discussions. On Saturday afternoon, before the main symposia began, there were 11 special-interest subgroup meetings. The atmosphere at these meetings was informal, and they encouraged open and frank discussion of data and issues. This report provides a brief summary of the discussions at seven of the special-interest subgroup meetings.     

Special-interest subgroups at the ASCB: Proteoglycans and cell adhesion

The annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is a large and diverse gathering. At last year's meeting**The American Society for Cell Biology 38th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, USA; 12-16 December, 1998. Program chair: Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz., there were over 8000 attendees, and the topics discussed covered many areas of cell biology. It would be impossible to cover the entire meeting within a trends in CELL BIOLOGY report, so instead we are focusing on an aspect of it that provided some of the most interesting and fruitful discussions. On Saturday afternoon, before the main symposia began, there were 11 special-interest subgroup meetings. The atmosphere at these meetings was informal, and they encouraged open and frank discussion of data and issues. This report provides a brief summary of the discussions at seven of the special-interest subgroup meetings.     

Heads in the clouds: On the carbon footprint of conference‐seeded publications in the advancement of knowledge

The carbon footprint of flying overseas to conferences, meetings, and workshops to share and build knowledge has been increasingly questioned over the last two decades, especially in environmental and climate sciences, due to the related colossal carbon emissions. Here, we infer the value of scientific meetings through the number of publications produced either directly or indirectly after attending a scientific conference, symposium, or workshop (i.e., the conference‐related production) and the number of publications produced per meeting (i.e., the conference‐related productivity) as proxies for the academic value of these meetings, and relate them to both the number of meetings attended and the related carbon emissions. We show that conference‐related production and productivity, respectively, increase and decay with the number of meetings attended, and noticeably that the less productive people exhibit the largest carbon footprint. Taken together, our results imply that a twofold decrease in the carbon footprint FCO2 of a given scientist would result in a twofold increase in productivity through a fivefold decrease in the number of meeting attended. In light of these figures, we call for both the implementation of objective and quantitative criteria related to the optimum number of conferences to attend in an effort to maximize scientific productivity while minimizing the related carbon footprint, and the development of a rationale to minimize the carbon emission related to scientific activities.     

Full publication of papers presented at the 1995 through 1999 European Association of Plastic Surgeons annual scientific meetings: a systemic bibliometric analysis

From the multitude of oral presentations at major medical meetings, the most informative and highest-quality studies make it to full publication in peer-reviewed journals. The rate of publication may be regarded as an indicator of the scientific level of the meeting. Study of the publication rates of consecutive annual meetings allows for the evaluation of the consistency of the scientific level of these meetings and for comparison with publication rates of other meetings in the same field of interest. To grade how useful any publication is to other authors, one can furthermore measure how frequently they cite it in their own publications. Finally, the time lag between oral presentation and full publication is of importance to both its authors and the audience at the meeting. The main objectives of this study were to determine the publication rate of papers of various fields of interest as presented at five consecutive annual meetings of the European Association of Plastic Surgeons (EURAPS) and the time lag between these presentations and their publication. The authors compared their overall findings to those reported for other surgical specialties. Moreover, they identified and classified the journals in which the full publications appeared as an indicator of the scientific value of the meeting. They conclude that a greater than average number of papers presented at the 1995 through 1999 annual EURAPS meetings went on to full publication in peer-reviewed journals. Among these journals, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery was the best source for information presented at the meetings. Although approximately 90 percent of the publications appeared before 3 years had passed after a meeting, additional publications may be expected to appear even more than 6 years after the meeting. Given the high publication rate and the high average normalized impact factor of the journals in which the presentations appeared, the five studied EURAPS meetings overall had high scientific value.     

On the development of neural diversity in the brain

The FEBS meeting titled "Generating neural diversity in the brain" took place on the island of Capri, from October 13-16. This high-level workshop was the 20(th) in a symposium series organized by the IGB (Instituto Genetica et Biophysica) of Naples funded by international agencies including FEBS, EMBO, European commission. The series is unusual in featuring first-rank international scientist speakers for a meeting whose audience consists primarily of students and post-docs. The endeavour is thus more explicitly educational than many major meetings and the young audience helps create a lively atmosphere. With intense morning and evening sessions, the afternoons are left free for the participants to explore the island, go swimming or relax.     

Abstracts of the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Willi Hennig Society. "Phylogenetics and Evolutionary Biology"

The 23rd annual meeting of the Willi Hennig Society took place in Paris with the support of Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle and CNRS (Centre National de la recherche Scientifique), from the 18th to the 23rd of July 2004. Ninety four participants from 16 countries presented 67 talks and 11 posters. The symposia comprised both methodological contributions and strong analyses of case studies, focusing on hot topics in systematics, methodological advances in phylogenetic analysis, epistemology, phylogenetic analysis of behavioral and ecological traits, phylogeny and coevolution of microbial symbioses, taxon and character sampling, biogeography, and the evolution of arthropods. The student participation was very high with 30 student talks (45%) distributed among all symposia, showing the same healthy trend seen in previous meetings. The present abstracts show how much systematics and phylogenetics are scientifically growing and contribute significantly to all research fields of evolutionary biology in the framework of comparative biology.
The Student Awards Committee (Cyrille D'Haese, Diana Lipscomb, John Wenzel) nominated the following winners: Johannes Bergsten, the Hennig Prize ($1000) for "Antagonistic coevolution between the sexes in diving-beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae); phylogeny and experiments in reciprocal illumination", Mahé Ben Hamed, the Brundin Prize ($500) for "Reconstructing the history of Chinese through lexicon. Cladistics, distances and trees" and Lara Lopardo, the Rosen Prize ($250) for the poster "Chilean Anapids and Their Webs, a Phylogenetic Approach (Araneae, Anapidae)".
© The Willi Hennig Society 2004.     

Meeting report on membrane transport and metabolism 4th International Congress on Amino Acids Vienna,Austria, August 7–11, 1995

Summary The session on Membrane Transport was a lively, interactive one with substantial audience participation in the discussion periods. Progress in this area of amino acid science is rapid as the genes encoding the transporter proteins are being cloned and characterized. The contributors to the platform session represented institutions from several countries giving the meeting a truly international flavor. Most of the participants contributed articles to this volume. The platform speakers were Dr. John McGivan (United Kingdom), Dr. Marçal Pastor-Anglada (Spain), Dr. Bruce Stephens (USA), Dr. G. Gazzola and Dr. V. Dall'Asta (Italy), Dr. Carol MacLeod (USA), Miss Maria Rivera-Correa (Puerto Rico), Dr. Ellen Closs (Germany), Dr. Manuel Palacín (Spain), Dr. Ovidio Bussolati (Italy), Dr. Suresh Tate (USA), Dr. S. Nakamura (Japan).