ITHACA, N.Y. -- The next great phase of research in the biological sciences is burgeoning at the crossroads where chemistry meets biology. To explore this cutting-edge interdisciplinary nexus, Cornell University's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology will host a symposium, "Frontiers in Chemical Biology." The free event will occur Saturday, April 30, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at 200 Baker Laboratory on campus.

"The main goal of the symposium is to bring in the best and brightest of chemical biology to inform ourselves about what is going on in the field and to share advances with our undergraduate and graduate students," says D. Tyler McQuade, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell and one of the symposium organizers.

"Genome sequencing has provided chemists with a road map for studying biological systems at the molecular level, and all of the top chemistry departments in the country have developed strong research programs in chemical biology," adds Tadhg Begley, a Cornell professor in chemistry and chemical biology and also a symposium organizer.

Chemical biology offers an important direction for where life sciences are headed in the future, McQuade says. As part of the progression of ideas in biology, scientists began by identifying natural systems and moved on to studying how organisms behave. Researchers then peeled away more layers by adding to our knowledge of organs, cells and molecules. Now, "the future of biology is to understand how individual molecular events tie into bigger systems," McQuade adds. For example, a current hot research area explores how chemical interactions may affect an organism's behavior.

The symposium covers a broad spectrum of topics to attract people from across many disciplines. They range from chemical synthesis to understanding how cells respond and interact with the outside world, a process called signal transduction.

"It is designed to be an opportunity for the whole campus to understand how chemistry fits into biology," says McQuade.

Speakers and topics include:

• Don Hunt, University of Virginia, "Comparative Analysis of Post-translationally Modified Proteins and Peptides by Mass Spectrometry: New Technology and Applications in the Study of Cell Migration, the Histone Code and Cancer Vaccine Development";
• Wilfred van der Donk, University of Illinois, "Post-translational Modifications During Lantibiotic Biosynthesis";
• Peter Schultz, The Scripps Research Institute, "New Opportunities at the Interface of Chemistry and Biology";
• Ben Cravatt, The Scripps Research Institute, "Activity-Based Proteomics";
• Tom Muir, Rockefeller University, "Chemical Probes and Triggers of Protein Function"; and
• Ron Breaker, Yale University, "Genetic Control of Riboswitches and Ribozymes."

For more information or to register to attend, contact Kelly Strickland at (607) 255-9887 or kss1@cornell.edu.