Protein Folding in the Cell - PROJECT SUMMARY This proposal seeks funding for 21 US-based Early Career Scientists (ECSs) to attend the FASEB Protein Folding in the Cell meeting in Louisville, Kentucky from June 1-4, 2026. This conference focuses on the latest developments regarding how the native conformations of cellular and secreted proteins are achieved and maintained. The meeting’s focus is on the basic science defining protein homeostasis, whose decline is especially prominent during aging and associated with many different neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Thus, we will dedicate close to half of the talks to this topic and pay particular focus on recent advances in therapeutic strategies. Special emphasis for the transmission of information will be placed both on the formal presentations as well as on informal interactions through round table discussions and, group brainstorming sessions to catalyze the generation of new hypotheses and the initiation of collaborations. Given the strong connection between protein folding and protein degradation and the fact that failure in either of these processes contributes to aging and disease, we are excited to report that we will, for the first time, join forces with the FASEB Ubiquitin (UB) meeting. We have precisely coordinated our two programs in an effort to provide maximal interactions. We will organize a joint Ignite Career Forum (see below), and will hold the keynote session, the poster sessions, two morning sessions (half of the speakers from UB, half from Protein Folding (PF)), and all coffee breaks, lunches, dinners and workshops together. By doing so, we will significantly expand the breadth of our covered topics and expose ECSs to a much broader research community while, at the same time, reducing the number of marquee speakers in the individual meetings and saving costs on registration. We will organize the second “Ignite Career Forum”, which will take place right before the main meeting, and will give sixteen graduate students and postdoctoral fellows the opportunity to present their research. The two best talks will be awarded speaking slots in the joint morning sessions of the main meeting. In addition, we have set aside 11 talks for invited ECSs and ECSs selected from the submitted abstracts, with a focus on bringing postdocs and Assistant Professors into the main program. Funding is sought to provide registration and travel awards for the 8 pre-meeting speakers (PF only), the two students representing PF on the organization committee as well as the 11 ECS, who will be selected for talks in the PF-program. We will organize 2-min lightning talks for poster presenters. Round table discussions over lunch will enable ECSs to discuss topics like careers, effective grant writing, how to pick the best research projects etc. with experts in the field.
