Project Summary
This proposal requests support to facilitate the attendance and participation of underrepresented groups,
women, and early career scientists to the Cellular and Molecular Fungal Biology Gordon Research Conference
and Seminar to be held at the Holderness School, June 16-21, 2024. Fungi are major causes of morbidity
especially among immunocompromised patient populations and yet the arsenal of treating fungal infections is
limited. Insight into the broad mechanisms of fungal communication with hosts, the environment, and other
microbes is essential for the advancement of treatment against fungal infections. The broad and long-term
goal of the conference is to disseminate information about fungal pathogenesis and biology among an
interdisciplinary group of researchers, and to increase our collective understanding of basic fungal biology and
its application to medically important problems. The specific aim of this meeting is to convene 50 speakers
and 10 discussion leaders who represent the leading edge of fungal research and to increase participation by
underrepresented groups, women, students, and postdocs that will fuel the future of fungal biology research. A
total of ~150 participants, most of whom will present posters, will gather for a five-day conference in a setting
with few distractions. The GRS is organized entirely by early career investigators and will be held on Saturday
and Sunday before the start of the GRC, and includes a keynote lecture, a career development session, two
poster sessions, and three oral sessions with presenters selected from the submitted abstracts. Both the GRS
and GRC oral and poster sessions are designed to emphasize discussion and networking, and evaluations
from past conferences demonstrate the effectiveness of this format. The 2024 meeting will combine the core
topics that underpin this area of research with newly emerging research topics, such as sessions focusing on
genomics, pathogenesis, symbiosis, responses to the environment and interactions with other microbes. These
topics are all integral to understanding fungal pathogenesis and to develop novel therapeutics. The
significance of this application is the demonstrated effect of this conference in accelerating research in the
national and international fungal biology community, particularly in the areas of fungal-host interactions,
evolution, and microbial communities that directly impact on endeavors such as fungal disease
treatment and the development of anti-fungal therapeutics.