This proposal is to request support for a Keystone Symposia meeting entitled Cardiovascular Development and Repair, organized by Doris A. Taylor and Brian Annex, which will be held in Keystone, Colorado from February 28 - March 5, 2010. During fetal development, cardiocytes and vascular progenitors proliferate, coalesce and organize to form a nascent organ. Yet during adult mammalian life, these same cells are incapable of responding to repair injured heart. This Keystone Symposia meeting is designed: 1) to expose scientists in the field of cardiac and vascular repair to models of successful cardiac repair in lower vertebrates;2) to discuss repair in the context of cardiac development;and 3) to begin to ask what cues and targets from each may be applicable in the adult mammal. As a companion to the Angiogenesis in Health and Disease meeting, it will provide meeting-goers access to both preclinical and clinical components of cardiac and vascular repair using cells, genes and small molecules.
Heart disease remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the western world. Many years of preclinical research and more recent clinical studies illustrate that cell transplant alone is not the hoped-for panacea. In order to understand more fully the capability for repair or regeneration in mammalian heart, this meeting is designed to bring together scientists who study the following: cardiac development;heart systems in lower vertebrates;stem and progenitor cells or small molecules;aging myocardium;and transplant immunology, a field that likely will impact the ultimate potential for safe therapies.
