Molecular Machines: From Biophysics To Physiology To Disease

The 2022 GRC on Cytoskeletal Motors continues a tradition of more than 50 years of GRCs focused on how molecular motors work. This meeting has a strong history of uniting biophysicists, structural biologists, and cell biologists and is a premier venue for highlighting the newest and most exciting research in the field. This meeting will bring together leaders in the field studying the mechanism of myosin, kinesin and dynein motors; spanning the range from biophysical studies at the single molecule level to structural studies of motors and motor track complexes to physiologic and pathophysiologic studies of motor function in health and in disease. A major focus will also be on how fundamental studies of the structure and function of each of these motors informs our understanding of how these motors work in ensembles and in cells. Biological questions that will be the subject of presentations at this meeting will include motor-driven intracellular transport and trafficking, motor function in complex cellular assemblies such as mitotic spindles, cilia, and cell cortex, and dynamics of the cytoskeletal tracks that these motors use in their normal function. Cytoskeletal motors also play an important role in human pathophysiology, and this conference will have sessions on how molecular motor defects play a role in cardiovascular, neurologic, infectious, and malignant diseases.

Sessions will include presentations both from senior investigators in the field as well as those chosen from abstracts, to further encourage the active participation by junior scientists. There will be a strong emphasis on lively discussion following each talk, with an emphasis on questions from students and postdoctoral fellows. Both the poster sessions and ample free time will provide an atmosphere that favors informal scientific exchanges, fostering the development of new ideas and collaborations.