DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this R13 application is to request partial funding for the upcoming Gordon Research Conference on Natural Products, scheduled to be held on July 31 - August 5, 2016 at Proctor Academy in Andover, NH. The meeting will be chaired by Richard E. Taylor, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame and an internationally-recognized researcher in the field of natural product synthesis, biosynthesis, and medicinal chemistry. The vice chair will be a respected researcher from industry to be elected at the 2015 GRC on Natural Products. Throughout history, natural products have been an inspiration to researchers from many fields. Their complex structures have stimulated investigations into the biosynthetic pathways and provided a motivation to identify new chemical reactions and synthetic strategies enabling their preparation and structural confirmation. Their ability to modulate biological pathways have been identified through chemical ecology studies designed to understand the evolutionary advantage they provide their producing organism and the search for next generation chemotherapeutic agents for human disease including some of the most pressing currently unmet clinical needs such as multidrug resistant bacterial infection, cancer, and rare genetic diseases. The field continues to evolve as technological advances enable identification and characterization of minute chemical components from complex mixtures, the fermentation of previously unculturable bacteria, and the genetic manipulation of natural product producing organisms. The overall objective of the conference is to provide a forum for the advancing the field from fundamental methodological and technological discovery and development to applications of clinical relevance. International researchers at senior and junior levels from academic, governmental, and industrial sectors as well as current student and postdoctoral trainees will be invited. Attendees will share their lates research findings as well as new paradigms for collaboration and help establish future initiatives in this field. The 65th Gordon Research Conference on Natural Products in 2016 will feature outstanding lectures featuring research and researchers that explore the therapeutic potential of natural products through the development of chemical and biological technologies. Approximately, thirty lecture-style presentations are meant to highlight unpublished research and stimulate discussion. Complementary informal research discussions, typically about seventy-five, will occur through the use of interactive poster sessions in a social setting. The conference format also provides significant opportunity for professional and social interactions between conference attendees. The meeting will be advertised to a diverse audience to include early career and under-represented scientists in multiple fields related to the program.

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Natural products are well represented in the lists of privileged structures as evolution has created these compounds to transport and modulate biological function. Thus, the detailed study of natural products with unknown or unique modes of action represents a paradigm with the ability to identify new biological targets and lead compounds for unmet clinical needs. The 2016 Gordon Research Conference on Natural Products will provide a platform to promote cross-disciplinary advances in natural product discovery and the study of their therapeutic potential. More than 60% of current FDA-approved therapeutics have natural product origins, the continued advancement of basic, applied, and clinical research investigations of these novel entities will have a positive impact on the health of individuals and the public.