Purpose & Goals

A thorough knowledge of the biochemistry, molecular biology, and genomics of tropical species interactions is essential to understanding and preserving the ecology of this important biome, yet such knowledge is hampered by the remoteness of most pristine tropical locations and a lack of communication between diverse biological disciplines. Many ecologists with a thorough knowledge of neotropical flora and fauna lack the modern biochemical and genomics tools to ask important questions about how interactions proceed at a microscopic level, while most laboratory scientists with these skills lack a deep knowledge of the neotropical and biodiverse organisms they would like to study. This PASI aims to address this lack of communication by assembling a workshop of ecologists, biochemists, geneticists, and plant and microbial biologists with an interest in tropical ecology at the Tambopata Chemical Ecology Institute (TCEI) located in the Tambopata National Reserve in southeastern Amazonian Peru. All keynote speakers are leaders in their fields, and the post-doctoral and advanced doctoral student participants will be rigorously selected based on several criteria, including their proven commitment to interdisciplinary research, and their interest in developing the field of tropical chemical biology during their scientific careers.