Invited speakers – Actin and Actin-Binding Proteins in Health and Disease


Opening ceremony Keynote lecture

"Actin: from atoms to cytokinesis"
Thomas Pollard (Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA)

Memory Session

	“Hugh E. Huxley (1924-2013): A pioneer in showing how muscle contracts and cells move”		“The life, work and fascinations of Hanna Strzelecka-Gołaszewska”
	Sarah Hitchcock-DeGregori (Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA)		Joanna Moraczewska (Kazimierz Wielki University, Bydgoszcz, Poland)

Session: Plant actin

	"Myosin XI drives tip-growth by vesicle focusing and localized F-actin polymerization"		"Tuning polarized growth by altering the balance between actin polymerization and depolymerization"
	Luis Vidali (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA)		Magdalena Benzanilla (Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA)

Session: Nuclear actin and myosin

	„Actin' on transcription”		“Roles of nuclear myosin in chromosome organisation and gene expression”
	Maria Vartiainen (Helsinki University, Finland)		Chris Toseland (University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK)

Session: Structure of actin and actin-binding proteins


	"Regulation of the cardiac thin filament - novel paradigms revealed by cryo electron microscopy"		"Molecular mechanisms of the thin filament length regulation by leiomodin"
	Vitold Galkin (Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia, USA)		Alla Kostyukova (Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA)


	"Friends and foes among actin-binding proteins”		"How the discovery of the mechanism of actin Nt-acetylation led to a method for recombinant actin expression that really works"
	Stefan Raunser (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, Dortmund, Germany)		Małgorzata Boczkowska (Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA)

Session: Cortical cytoskeleton

“Cyclase-associated protein 1 (CAP1) - a new CAPt'n of neuronal actin dynamics”		“Regulation of dendritic spine initiation in brain development and learning”		"Role of tropomyosin in the establishment of mitotic cortical tension and rescue of spindle defects induced by low dose chemotherapy"
Marco Rust (Philipps-Universität, Marburg, Germany)		Pirta Hotulainen (University of Helsinki, Finland)		Peter Gunning (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia)

Session: Diversity of actin binding proteins

	"The participation of the actin cytoskeleton in the expulsion of neutrophil extracellular traps"		"Quantifying actin network dynamics using fluorescent nucleotides"
	Hans Georg Mannherz (Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany)		Alphee Michelot (Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IBDM, Turing Centre for Living Systems, Marseille, France)


	“How cells direct the front and bridge matrix gaps during cell migration”		"Polymerization of branched actin at the lamellipodial edge by alternative WAVE complexes"
	Tobias Meyer (Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA and Weill Cornell Medicine, USA)		Alexis M Gautreau (Laboratoire de Biologie Structurale de la Cellule, CNRS, École Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France)

Session: Actin-associated molecular motors

	"Cellular functions of myosin motor proteins in health and disease"		"The role of class-18 myosins in the organization of actin structures in muscle and non-muscle cells"
	Folma Buss (Cambridge University, England)		Manuel H. Taft (Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Hannover Medical School, Germany)

Session: Actin response to cell signalling

	"Regulation of the actin cytoskeleton at the nucleotide and amino acid level"		"Actin-g on the heart - beyond just muscle contraction”
	Anna Kashina (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA)		Elisabeth Ehler (Kings College, London, UK)