Chemokines, together with their cognate classical G protein-coupled signaling receptors and their atypical non-signaling receptors comprise a complex molecular network involved in nearly all aspects of human health and disease. The 2016 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Chemotactic Cytokines: Molecular Mechanisms to Therapeutic Strategies is a world premier meeting devoted entirely to understanding these important molecules. This will be our 12th Chemokine GRC, which has been held every other year since 1994, when chemokines first burst onto the scene as the largest cytokine gene family in the human genome. Similar to each preceding conference in this series, the Chemotactic Cytokines GRC 2016 will bring together scientists from a broad range of biomedical disciplines to showcase the latest unpublished research findings that cover all aspects of chemokine function and provide a high-quality scientific forum to discuss their potential implications, including translation to the clinic. The program of this meeting will cover basic biochemical and biological aspects of chemokines as related to their contributions to leukocyte migration and emigration, immune tissue organization and function, and their role in inflammation, infection, autoimmunity and cancer. New developments in potential drugs and treatment strategies will also make this meeting particularly exciting. In addition, due to the success of the first Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Chemotactic Cytokines in 2012 and 2014, we will again host a satellite meeting for bench scientists at the graduate and postdoctoral level titled Emerging Concepts in Chemokine Biology. The GRS provides a forum where young researchers present their work and receive feedback on their research projects from their peers and a selected panel of senior experts. The GRS will promote grassroots level integration and networking within the field of chemokine research. NIH funding is requested to provide partial support for registration of the participants. We fully anticipate that the scientific discussions, research talks, poster sessions, and informal interactions between the participants of this conference will contribute to advancing our understanding of molecular mechanisms of chemokine involvement in disease pathogenesis. This will lay the ground work for the development of new collaborative projects, which will lead to new discoveries and ultimately new therapies and approaches to treat debilitating human disease, including inflammatory, autoimmune, and infectious diseases and cancer.
The Gordon Research Conference and the Gordon Research Seminar on Chemotactic Cytokines will bring together scientists from an unusually diverse array of scientific disciplines to understand the role of chemokines in normal physiology and in diseases ranging from inflammatory diseases to HIV, cancer and diabetes. It will pave the way for the development of new drugs and disease treatments by fostering the exchange of information between basic scientists, clinicians and researchers involved in drug development. And it will also provide a mechanism to foster the cross-fertilization of ideas coming from different scientific disciplines, countries, ethnic, age, experience and gender groups, and facilitate the training of our next generation scientists.
