2013 Symposia on Protein Synthesis and Translational Control

"Translational Control" has become a major focus of attention in the field of gene regulation. Interest in translation extends to many fields, including development, neurobiology, cell physiology and disease, etc. The discovery of miRNAs opened a new frontier that is now being extended with the finding of new noncoding RNA molecules and the establishment of novel powerful high-throughput techniques, which will be central within the conference. With the increasing appreciation for the integration between different steps in the gene expression pathway, the conference will also explore the latest work on the interfaces between translational control and mRNA turnover, RNA localization and splicing/nonsense-mediated decay. The conference will continue to promote communication between experts in the field of translation with those from a scientifically related field that have traditionally held separate meetings: the structure and function of the ribosome. Finally, our understanding of the biochemistry of the translation process is progressing rapidly, and is uncovering hidden layers of regulation: isoforms of translation initiation factors with distinct activities, initiation at non-AUG codons, etc. The latest findings regarding these processes will feature prominently within the conference. We thus believe that the conference promises to be timely, scientifically cutting-edge and of broad interest.