New Horizons in Ca Signaling

The Biophysical Society and the Biophysical Society of China held their first joint meeting—"New Horizons in Calcium Signaling"—from Oct. 10 to 13 in Beijing. More than 200 researchers and scientists from 20 countries attended this event.

Calcium is the most important and versatile cellular messenger. In celebration of a half-century of calcium signaling, Mordecai P. Blaustein of University of Maryland opened the first session of the meeting with a presentation reviewing the history of calcium researches. From “the stone age (pre-1960s)” when Ca2+ was generally known to have some functions in muscle contraction, to the 1960s with the discoveries of Ca2+ currents and fluxes, Ca2+ pumps, and Ca2+ accumulating structures, to the 1970s when Ca2+ transients were visualized by aequorin and EF-hand structure of Ca2+ binding proteins were identified, to the 1980s with the second generation of Ca2+ sensors developed by Roger Y. Tsien and his colleagues, to the 1990s when new Ca2+ sensors and the first Ca2+ biosensor were discovered and faster Ca2+ imagings were developed, the 21st century is fueled with newer generations of Ca2+ biosensors and in vivo imaging for even greater challenges and discoveries.

Indeed, the rest of the program witnessed 38 oral presentations and 127 posters featuring exciting new advances in Ca2+ signaling in cell migration, cancer, apoptosis, mitochondria, TRP channels, two pore channels, secretion, neurons and astrocytes, cardiac muscle, skeletal, and smooth muscles. The keynote lecture was given by Richard W. Tsien of Stanford University. He spoke on the excitation-transcription coupling and how old players of Ca2+ signaling are involved in the new pathway.

Event Organizers

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• Mordecai Blaustein, University of Maryland School of Medicine, USA
• Heping Cheng, Peking University, China
• W. Jonathan Lederer, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, USA
• Zhuan Zhou, Peking University, China