Integrating Dynamics, Mechanisms and Consequences to Understand Notch Signaling Specificity and Disease Implications

The 2018 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on "Notch Signaling in Development, Regeneration and Disease" plans to address the most important problems and opportunities at the frontiers of Notch biology. In addition to encouraging talks and posters that focus on the core events of signaling and their dynamics, the meeting will also emphasize how Notch signaling is regulated in different cellular contexts, including cancers and other diseases, and how it cross-talks with other signaling, metabolic and environmental cues. Building on the recent structural advances, talks will delve into quantitative and dynamic aspects of signaling, the numerous routes by which signaling can be regulated or modulated, how this atypical signaling process regulates the formation of different organs during development and how it acts to maintain stem cell pools. Considering the key role of Notch pathway aberrations in disease, the meeting will also discuss developmental syndromes, adult onset diseases, and many types of cancer from mechanistic and therapeutic perspectives, providing a forum in which to identify avenues that may enable more effective ways to manipulate Notch signaling in these diseases.

Invited speakers span expertise from structural biology to cancer therapeutics. By bringing this diversity together, even within sessions, cross-fertilization of ideas and new synergies will be encouraged. Time is also set aside for short talks selected from the submitted abstracts, to provide a platform for the latest breaking topics. Strong emphasis is placed on the presentation of unpublished findings in both talks and posters. The collegial and confidential atmosphere of this conference, with discussion sessions and opportunities for informal gatherings in the afternoons and evenings, provides an ideal environment for free scientific exchange. The Gordon Research Seminar (GRS), a pre-meeting for postdocs and graduate students prior to the main conference, will also encourage participation from scientists at all levels.