We extend an invitation to the life sciences community to participate in the first North-South Americas Molecular Biology Conference to be held at The Ohio State University. The Ohio State University, in collaboration with the University of Sao Paulo and Rutgers University, is pleased to sponsor this event to be held on September 8-10 2004, at The Ohio State University Campus. The Conference will focus on all emerging areas of molecular biology including, animal, human (medical), microbial, and plant molecular biology. The objective of the conference is to foster research and educational exchanges between scientists at the participating institutions.

This is the first year the conference will be held at The Ohio State University and in recognition of the 40th anniversary of the Memorandum of Understanding between The Ohio State University and the University Sao Paulo a special event will be hosted by the President, Dr. Karen Holbrook and the Vice President for Agriculture, Dr. Bobby Moser the evening of September 9th. In addition, Dr. Henrique Amorin, a graduate of Ohio State University and the founder of Fermentec Corporation of Sao Paulo will present a luncheon presentation on biotechnology opportunities in Brazil.

This year the College of Biological Sciences, in collaboration with the University of Sao Paulo and Rutgers University will be sponsoring a small grants program to support scientific exchanges between the University of Sao Paulo and The Ohio State University and Rutgers University. The first year the focus of the small grants program will be Plant Molecular Biology. The focus area of the small grants program will change with each subsequent request for proposals. Details on the small grants program will be available at the Conference.

Please submit your registration and abstract information online by August 20th.