PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT This application requests funds to support the 2020 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Signaling by Adhesion Receptors (subtitled “Adhesion across scales: from molecules to morphogenesis”), and the associated Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) for postdoctoral fellows and graduate students (subtitled “Bench to bedside: investigating basic biomechanics and biomedical aspects of cell adhesion signaling”). Both meetings will take place at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, NH from June 27-July 3, 2020. Biochemical and mechanical signaling at cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesions plays a central role in guiding cell migration, cell polarity, and developmental morphogenesis, and these mechanisms are frequently disrupted in disease. This meeting, which has been held biannually since 2000, has a strong tradition of bringing together a diverse group of current and future leaders in the field of cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion to present exciting new discoveries, emerging ideas, and new techniques that will drive future research in this field. Woven throughout the 2020 meeting will be a focus on developmental morphogenesis, highlighting research that employs a variety of developing model organisms. The Chair of the 2020 meeting, Dr. Ann Miller, is a cell biologist who uses a developing vertebrate model organism (Xenopus laevis) to investigate how cell-cell adhesion is maintained and remodeled as epithelial cells change shape and divide. The specific aims of the 2020 meeting are: 1) to provide an interdisciplinary forum for discussion of new discoveries in cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion signaling and help attendees gain a multi-scale appreciation of cell adhesion and 2) to build a community that exchanges scientific ideas and mentoring advice among diverse meeting participants from all career stages. Speakers at this meeting will include both established investigators and promising early career scientists. Notably, 4 talks each day (16 talks total) are reserved for graduate student, postdoc, or Early Stage Investigator speakers, who will be selected from the abstracts. Throughout the meeting, starting with a 2-day GRS for graduate students and postdocs, there will be opportunities for trainees to showcase their research and network with each other, as well as structured and unstructured opportunities for interaction and mentoring between early career scientists and established investigators. The collegial and interactive environment of the 2020 Signaling by Adhesion Receptors GRC/GRS will expose young scientists to the latest ideas and opportunities in adhesion signaling and encourage them to become the future leaders of this field.