Abstract

The 2018 Gordon Research Conference on Cellular and Molecular Fungal Biology will focus on the incredible diversity of fungal form and lifestyle. Fungal diversity presents rich opportunities to discover and characterize divergent mechanistic solutions to evolutionary pressures and environmental challenges, advancing our understanding of biology as a whole. Exploitation of fungal diversity also harbors tremendous promise for therapeutic and commercial purposes. But fungal diversity also presents challenges, most notably in understanding the means by which evolutionarily diverse fungal pathogens infect, exploit, and kill human, animal, and plant hosts. The conference will bring together researchers across the globe and spanning career stages to present and discuss the latest exciting findings on fungal diversity, evolution, sex, development, growth and pathogenicity. We will explore environmental sensing, signaling, morphology and molecular motors, as well as the synthetic design and commercial exploitation of fungal systems. Morning and evening sessions will be interspersed with poster sessions and unstructured time to maximize informal interactions and the exchange of ideas. The Holderness School sits in a tranquil and intimate New England setting that fosters a highly interactive conference. Our highly interactive fungal community, combined with our (first ever!) Gordon Research Seminar, makes this a fantastic forum for young scientists to interact with established group leaders.