Cell biology society celebrates 50th
Cell biology was a novel science 50 years ago when the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) held its first annual meeting in Chicago, drawing 844 researchers.
This year over 7,000 scientists from throughout the world will gather at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia on Dec. 11 to 15 for ASCB's 50th Annual Meeting. The cutting edge forum to understand health and disease through research on the cell, ASCB's conferences are the largest yearly gatherings of research cell biologists in the world.
Science writers, journalists, and science bloggers are invited to register online to receive advance copies of embargoed news releases as well as the embargoed "Cell Biology 2010" press book:
http://www.ascb.org/meetings/Press/press1.cfm
The news releases and press book will feature the research presentations regarded as the most novel and newsworthy by "peer-screening" of submitted abstracts by the cell biologists who are members of the ASCB Public Information Committee.
While ASCB's first conference in 1961 featured three symposia, this year's 50th Annual Meeting will include over 100 scientific sessions and 3,500 additional poster presentations over five days. Full details of the scientific program are online at:
http://www.ascb.org/meetings/pdf/Annual_Meeting_Program.pdf
In Philadelphia, researchers will present new findings in nanoscale biology, failures in the cell's "quality control" systems, and how mechanical stiffness might be a driving force in tumor formation, topics that likely would have struck those attending the first ASCB conference in 1961 as farfetched.
Among the sessions at the 50th Annual Meeting:
- Biotech meets Academia: Ira Mellman, Ph.D., of Genentech, and Randall Moon, Ph.D., of University of Washington School of Medicine and HHMI will navigate the passage from "Cell Biology to Therapeutics."
- An insider's view of the high-stakes world of translational medicine: Timothy J. Mitchison, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School, will use his experiences as background for the keynote address, "Improving Cancer Therapy: How Can a Basic Scientist Contribute." Mitchison is this year's ASCB President.
In addition, the winners of Celldance 2010 will be announced at the conference. Celldance, whose promotional headline this year is "True Tales of the Wild, Wild Western Blot," will recognize visually stunning videos and images that illuminate cell biology. The Celldance promotional poster is at:
http://www.ascb.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=258&Itemid=257&fontstyle=f-larger
Provided by American Society for Cell Biology
