Understanding Biology Using Peptides: Proceedings Of The Nineteenth American Peptide Symposium (american Peptide Symposia)

Goodman Memorial Preface The Nineteenth American Peptide Symposium (APS) was held in San Diego, California on June 18-23, 2005. More than 1,000 scientists, accompanying persons, and exhibitors from all over the world attended the conference, and as Editor of the Proceedings of the 19th APS, I am very pleased to share the state-of-the art research projects and ideas that were presented during this event. The symposium began with a special session focused on protein design cosponsored by the Protein Society and the American Peptide Society to encourage discussion between two complementary fields of science. For example, the contribution in this book by Dr. Etzkorn on the mechanism of peptidyl-prolyl isomerase clearly shows how short peptides can be used as tools to investigate the biology of larger protein. This session organized by Dr. Jeff Kelly, President-Elect of the Protein Society and co-Chair of the 19th APS was a great success and opened future opportunities for interactions between the two societies. The increasing active participation of young investigators to the field of peptide research was clearly seen with the outstanding lectures at the Bert Schram Young Investigator mini-symposium sponsored by the Escom Science Foundation and chaired by Dr. John P. Mayer and Dr. Alain Fournier (a number of which are described in this Proceedings), and the large number of poster entries for the Young Investigator’s Poster Competition (organized by Dr. DeAnna Long). As demonstrated by the contributions to this Proceedings, the topics of the Symposium covered cutting-edge research presented by a wide range of distinguished speakers. As outlined by the contribution by Dr. Richard Houghten, recipient of the Merrifield Award, as well as the Goodman Memorial Session, the progresses in peptide and peptidomimetic chemistry are driven by the need to develop novel therapeutics or tools to understand biological natural events. Novel approaches to generate peptides by biological means were also presented at this symposium. Other increasing topics included quorum sensing, post-translational modifications of peptides, peptide quaternary structures in material science and disease, and proteomics. I wish to thank all authors of the contributions for their efforts and their willingness to participate to this book, and Michael Chorev and Donna Freher-Lyons for their assistance in the preparation of this book. Lastly, I wish to give special thank to my husband and daughter for their support and encouragement in preparing the Proceedings of the 19th American Peptide Symposium. Sylvie Blondelle v Message from the President of the American Peptide Society The 19th American Peptide Symposium was another successful addition to the American Peptide Society’s series of biennial symposia. An international group of 980 registrants from 33 countries contributed to the high quality program that is documented in this volume. Thank you to all of the lecturers and poster presenters for your excellent contributions. Congratulations to co-chairs Jeffery Kelly and Tom Muir along with their staff and the organizing and program committees for a successful meeting. Thank you also to all of our sponsors and exhibitors. And finally, thank you to Past President Roger Freidinger for his oversight of this effort. The American Peptide Society recognized the achievements of outs