COMS

In addition to presentations by invited speakers, abstracts will be selected for shorter oral presentations for each session, ensuring that the program includes a breadth of exciting new topics emerging in the period just preceding the conference.

Strong emphasis will be placed on presentation of unpublished data and extended discussion times tackling the cutting edge of the field. Poster sessions will also be given high priority. Applications will be accepted from a diverse mix of established investigators, junior PIs, postdocs and graduate students. There will also be a satellite GRS meeting for postdocs and graduate students prior to the main GRC.

Invited speakers will discuss and evaluate critically new findings on (1) the structure of the molecular machinery underlying excitation-contraction coupling, (2) the rapid calcium signaling important for excitation-contraction coupling as well as the slower calcium signals that are important for regulating other processes in striated muscle, (3) the effects of human disease-causing mutations, fatigue and aging on excitation-contraction coupling (4) the roles of both the primary players and the accessory proteins of the triad junction in excitation-contraction coupling, (5) the role of calcium signaling in adaptation, and disease progression, and (6) the development and implementation of new methods to probe muscle excitation-contraction coupling and signaling.

In addition to the invited speakers, the organizing committee will select several poster presenters to give short talks during the formal sessions. The conference will stimulate discussions and will provide a forum that will give young and established investigators the opportunity to meet and interact and exchange their opinions on various topics of the meeting. By bridging basic science, translational and clinical studies related to the mechanism of muscle diseases, this meeting will foster new research directions and scientific collaborations moving the field forward into the future.