Stewart, David Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Conference 75th Annual Symposium on Quantitative Biology Nuclear Organization and Function June 2 - 7, 2010 The Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology are held yearly at the beginning of June at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York. They bring together approximately 300-400 scientists from all over the world to present and evaluate new data and ideas in rapidly moving areas of biological research. Each year, a topic is chosen that seems to be at a stage where general and intensive scrutiny and review is needed. The Symposia always seek to bring research workers from abroad, as well as the U.S., so as to ensure the wide scope and depth of the program and to take advantage of their specific contributions. They also seek to provide outstanding younger scientists, both graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, with an opportunity to participate and communicate with more senior scientists. The Symposia also seek to have participation from women and minority scientists. The Symposia bring together scientists who use a variety of approaches, e.g., genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, and structural studies, to analyze problems in the area under discussion. The Leading Strand archive makes video recordings of the talks immediately available to colleagues of those who attended, while the proceedings of the Symposia are published by the Laboratory and thus made available to a wider audience than the scientists who attend the meeting. In-depth interviews with leading scientists undertaken during the Symposium provide an alternative snapshot of the state of current research. The annual Symposia will continue to be planned to further the progress of advancements in biomedical science. This proposal request support for the period 2010 to cover the 75th Cold Spring Harbor Symposium which will focus on "Nuclear Organization and Function" and reflects the growing convergence between descriptive cell biological approaches to the nucleus and mechanism-driven approaches to nuclear processes that is now shedding light on the connections and dynamics between processes, to better establish how the structural and functional organization of the primary control center of the cell operates. In particular, this application seeks federal support for junior participants including selected Symposium Fellows to actively present their latest work at this historic occasion, as well as some of the invited speakers who form the core of the meeting. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The nucleus is the operational headquarters of the cell, where the DNA and chromosome that make up our genetic material are housed. The nucleus has a well defined periphery or membrane through which materials including proteins, nucleic acids and small molecules have to traffic into and out the nucleus through gate-like pores. It is becoming increasingly clear that inside the nucleus, a complicated and dynamic architecture helps to determines when and how genes are turned on and off. Human diseases including accelerated aging are now understood to involve aberrations in some of these structures or mechanisms. This Symposium will address the dynamic organization and function of the nucleus, and how advances in our understanding of these systems may help in preventing or treating these diseases.