This conference will cover the most recent and exciting research in all aspects of FGF biology, facilitating interdisciplinary interactions between academic scientists from a broad range of fields as well as clinicians and industry colleagues. The conference is organized into themes and each theme will involve presentations by invited speakers as well as shorter talks selected from abstracts. Themes will include the role of FGFs/FGFRs in early development, organogenesis, musculoskeletal biology, nervous system, endocrine FGFs in metabolism, tumorigenesis, intracellular signaling and emerging research areas. Applications will be accepted from established investigators, junior PIs, postdocs and graduate students. This meeting is preceded by a satellite GRS meeting (2 days) designed for postdocs and graduate students.

The FGFs are growth and differentiation factors that signal through a family of FGFRs to regulate a multitude of normal developmental process as well as tissue homeostasis and metabolism in adults. Deregulation of members of these pathways through a variety of different mechanisms can cause a wide range of diseases including developmental syndromes affecting children as well as multiple diseases affecting adults, encompassing musculoskeletal and metabolic disorders, degenerative conditions and cancer. Many groups are involved in translating basic research discoveries into novel treatments across a broad range of diseases.

The 2018 FGF GRC is a highly regarded intimate meeting with extensive opportunities for multidisciplinary networking between scientists, clinicians and industry representatives during shared meal times and poster sessions, allowing valuable cross-fertilization of ideas and methodologies. Interactions between PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, early and mid career scientists and well established senior scientists are a major strength of the Gordon Conferences, and many fruitful collaborations have been formed as a direct result of such interactions over recent years.