Translon Symposium

Modern translation biology has moved beyond a simple one-transcript, one-ORF, one-protein view. Multiple fields, including translatomics, proteogenomics, and comparative genomics, now point to a complex architecture of translated regions that can share the same RNA molecules. Beyond coding for proteins, these regions can contribute to regulation, generate short peptides or antigens, shape ribosome behaviour, or produce molecular outcomes whose functions remain unknown.

The term translon provides a shared conceptual unit for this diversity: a translated region considered as a functional unit of translation, independent of whether it produces a stable protein, a short peptide, an antigen, a regulatory event, or multiple context-dependent outputs.

The symposium subtitle, At the Molecular Crossroads, reflects the central position of translons in gene expression. Translons connect RNA sequence and structure with ribosome dynamics, peptide and protein production with regulatory events, and molecular mechanisms with annotation and biological resources. They provide a way to discuss translation not only as a route to protein synthesis, but as a decision-rich process in which multiple molecular outcomes can emerge from the same RNA.

The symposium brings together researchers across RNA biology, translation regulation, ribosome profiling, proteomics, cancer biology, computational annotation, and biological data resources. The goal is to share perspectives on translated regions across the full path from molecular mechanism to biological consequence, detection technology, annotation, and community resources.