Support is requested for travel of participating American investigators to the Sixth International Conference on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), to be held March 26-28, 2001, in Barcelona, Spain. This conference will bring together investigators and practitioners from around the world to summarize and reflect on a vast accumulation of new data in the three years since the Fifth Conference. Topics to be highlighted in plenary sessions are: pathogenesis, accelerated atheroma, autoimmune response, antiphospholipid syndrome, autoantibodies as cause, prognosis and future research. Topics featured as 'hot topics' are: prolactin, stem cell transplantation, and nucleosomes. Regular session topics include: epidemiology, lupus in childhood and the elderly, lymphocytes, nephritis, neonatal lupus, animal models, cerebral lupus, drug-induced lupus, infection, immunogenetics, malignancy, autoantibodies (clinical), autoantibodies (immunology), autoantibodies (pathogenic mechanisms), skin, sex hormones, pregnancy, disease activity/damage, cardiovascular disease, geographical lupus, apoptosis, treatment, cytokines, overlap syndromes, future therapies, and vasculitis. Six sessions will be devoted to free papers and three to poster presentations. Each session will be chaired by a world leader in the topic and will focus on new information in each subfield (including pathogenesis and disease measurement), how this new information influences practice, animal models (including transgenics), and current and future therapies. Women and minorities are represented among session chairs, invited speakers, and organizers. This meeting brings together international investigators who seldom otherwise meet as a group to discuss this important disease. These investigators include basic scientists, clinical scientists, and practitioners from several specialties, including neurology, nephrology, hematology, obstetrics, internal medicine and family practice. The conference provides opportunities for collaborations and reagent exchange. Funding will allow participation of young investigators in this field.
