Advancing and Reshaping Structural Biology with Electron Cryo-Microscopy

The 2016 Gordon Research Conference on Three-Dimensional Electron Microscopy (3DEM) will continue its 30+ years tradition of highlighting recent advances in both technological developments and their applications in addressing critical biological questions. For the first time, the 3DEM conference will be held in Asia.

3DEM is a versatile method in structural and cell biology. In recent years, the field of 3DEM has experienced and is still experiencing a resolution revolution brought by major technological breakthroughs. Challenging targets and questions in structural biology that have been intractable for many years, ranging from membrane proteins to large and dynamic machineries and assemblies, are becoming feasible targets of single particle cryo-EM. Electron tomography and sub-volume averaging are also producing detailed structural information of assemblies in the cellular context with unprecedented resolutions. The extraordinary excitements and opportunities thus attract many scientists, structural biologists in particular, from outside of 3DEM field to not only learn and practice the state-of-the-art cryo-EM techniques for their favorite targets, but also bring their own expertise and ideas to improve the techniques. The rapid technological developments and advancement coupled with the rapid expansion of the field brought tremendous opportunities as well as serious challenges to 3DEM. The landscapes of both 3DEM as well as structural biology in general are experiencing significant changes. Thus, the theme of the 2016 GRC on 3DEM is Reshaping Structural Biology.

The 2016 conference will continue its tradition to discuss the latest technological advents, progress in applying the methods to addressing important and critical biological questions, methodologies and criteria in validating critical results, as well as data deposition and accessibility. It will also provide a forum for thorough discussions among both established experts and junior scientists from different disciplines, with either academia or industrial backgrounds. Following the tradition of 3DEM GRC meetings, the 2016 meeting encourages participants to present recent and unpublished scientific results, in both oral and poster presentations. Two evening sessions are dedicated for selected poster presentations. Again, due to limited attendance (<200 participants) and the over-subscribed nature of previous meetings, particularly the 2015 meeting, early registration is encouraged.