Abstract

Cell-cell fusion is a fundamental cellular process in fertilization, muscle development, bone resorption, immune response, placental formation, stem cell-mediated tissue regeneration, and cancer progression. The past two decades have witnessed significant progress in understanding how cells fusion, highlighted by the discovery of transmembrane fusogens in various cell fusion events and the discovery of an asymmetric fusogenic synapse, where mechanical forces generated by actin polymerization and actomyosin contraction promote cell membrane fusion. Despite the diversity of cell types and organisms that undergo fusion, some common mechanisms started to emerge. The 2020 Gordon Conference on Cell-Cell Fusion will bring together an outstanding and diverse group of investigators to discuss the latest advances in cell-cell fusion and membrane fusion research. The conference is highly multidisciplinary and involves approaches in genetics, cell biology, biochemistry, biophysics, structural biology, super-resolution microscopy, and cryo-EM and tomography.