Cell Size and Growth, from Single Cells to the Tree of Life
Date: 3 – 6 April 2022
Location: Buxted Park, East Sussex, UK
Organisers: Clotilde Cadart and Matthew Swaffer
Cell size is tightly linked to cellular physiology – it sets the scale of subcellular compartments, cellular biosynthetic capacity, metabolism, mechanical properties, surface-to-volume ratios, and molecular transport. Changes in cell size are also associated with many disease states such as cancer and ageing.
How cell size impacts these different cellular processes and how cells control their size are long-standing but unresolved questions in cell biology. Recent developments have brought important insights but have also emphasised the breadth of remaining unanswered questions. For example, the molecular mechanisms that couple cellular biosynthesis or organelle scaling with cell volume are still largely mysterious. Even less is known about cell size regulation within complex environments such as plant or animal tissues, or how changes in cell size may impact biological function at the cellular or tissue level.
The primary aim of this workshop is to bring together world-leading researchers working on a diversity of questions related to cell size across a range of model systems.
It is also well established that such scaling relationships exist across species. For example, cell size, nuclear size, genome size and developmental rate show pronounced scaling relationships with one another across the tree of life. These observations suggest the existence of some fundamental principles that link genome size, cell size and whole-organism physiology across species. However, at present there is a disconnect between the cell size field and research focused on scaling relationships between species across evolutionary time-scales. To bridge the gap between these two lines of research, this workshop also aims to connect cell biologists with scientists from ecology and evolutionary biology.
The workshop will offer a highly interactive and discursive environment, where researchers are invited to present their most recent unpublished work.
Organisers & speakers
Clotilde Cadart University of California, Berkerley, USA
Matthew Swaffer Stanford University, USA
Renata Basto Institut Curie, France
Fred Chang University of California, San Francisco, USA
Bruce Edgar Huntsman Cancer Institute, USA
Johan Elf Uppsala University, Sweden
Douglas Glazier Juniata College, USA
Ivan Gomez-Mestre Doñana Biological Station, Spain
Rebecca Heald University of California, Berkeley, USA
Martin Howard John Innes Centre, UK
Christine Jacobs-Wagner Stanford University, USA
Jette Lengefeld University of Helsinki, Finland
Alison Lloyd University College London, UK
Paul Nurse Francis Crick Institute, UK
Jochen Rink Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Germany
Adrienne Roeder Cornell University, USA
Van Savage University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Bianca Sclavi French National Centre for Scientific Research, USA
Jan Skotheim Stanford University, USA
Zuzana Storchová TU Kaiserslautern, Germany
Early-career researchers
Applications for this Workshop are now closed
We offer 10 funded places for early-career researchers to attend this Workshop along with the 20 speakers. We just ask that you pay for your own travel costs. If you would like to attend please complete the application form and attach your abstract, a one page CV and a letter of support from your supervisor. If your supervisor would prefer to send the letter directly to us please ask them to email it to workshops@biologists.com
All attendees are expected to actively contribute to the Workshops by asking questions at presentation sessions and taking part in discussions, as well as giving a short talk on their research.
At some Workshops, early-career researchers are given additional responsibilities to promote their involvement, such as:
- Write a daily blog for the Node
- Summarise the previous day’s themes to set the scene for the next day’s sessions
- Propose future directions and collaborations
- Make a short 2 minute video on their experience at the Workshop
Most of these activities would be carried out in pairs or small groups and often with the support of more senior scientists present.
About Buxted Park
The Workshop will be held at the beautiful Buxted Park in East Sussex which dates back to the 12th century. The current house was built in 1722 by Sir Thomas Medley and is an elegant Grade II Palladian mansion set in 312 acres of parkland. Over the years it has played host to a number of high profile visitors including William Wordsworth, Winston Churchill, and George V and Queen Mary. Whilst it was a health hydro in the 1960s Gregory Peck, Dudley Moore and Marlon Brando were regular visitors.
Buxted Park is less than 25 miles from Gatwick Airport and 60 miles from Heathrow Airport. There are direct trains taking 1 hour 10 minutes from London Bridge to the village of Buxted which is only a mile away from the hotel.
Buxted Park Hotel
Station Road
Buxted
East Sussex
TN22 4AY
Tel: +44 (0) 1825 733333
Workshop Photos
Cell Size and Growth, from Single Cells to the Tree of Life
3 – 6 April 2022
Buxted Park, East Sussex, UK
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