The Gordon Research Conference on Protein Folding Dynamics will follow the Gordon-Kenan Graduate Research Seminar on Protein Folding Dynamics (January 6-8, 2006).

Protein folding is a multidisciplinary area of research addressing one of the fundamental problems in biology. Understanding the dynamical and energetic features of folding, are keys to elucidating issues of protein function, design and the origin of misfolding diseases. Consequently, few other fields have seen such a successful blend of physical and biological sciences. Progressively, more studies that bring together experiment and theory are being published, and this combination is advancing our fundamental quantitative understanding of the folding process. Technological and theoretical advances have altered our view of the how protein folding occurs. Fast events can be observed experimentally on timescales that approach those accessible by all-atom molecular dynamics simulations. New, sophisticated "simple" models of proteins allow ensemble kinetics to be sampled and compared to experiment. The Gordon Research Conference in Protein Folding Dynamics is a relatively new conference, set up to specifically bring experiment and theory together to explore advances in the field, and as a forum to discuss fundamental problems from polypeptide energetics and dynamics; to chaperone assisted folding and the relationship between protein misfolding and disease.