Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia meeting entitled Asthma: From Pathway Biology to Precision Therapeutics, organized by Drs. Clare M. Lloyd, John V. Fahy and Sally Wenzel-Morganroth. The meeting will be held in Keystone, Colorado from February 12-16, 2017. Asthma affects people from childhood to old age and causes significant public health problems with great economic consequences. The type 2 inflammation pathway is considered the dominant mechanism of asthma, but clinical trials of recently developed treatments targeting this pathway indicate that large numbers of asthmatics do not benefit from this approach. This limited effect of type 2 inhibitors, coupled with recent advances in our understanding of the clinical diversity of asthma, underscores the heterogeneous nature of the underlying disease mechanisms.
The aims of this meeting are to move from a one-size-fits-all paradigm to one in which asthmatics receive personalized treatments based on biomarkers that classify their specific disease mechanism. The meeting program will combine cutting-edge presentations on the molecular mechanisms of inflammation and remodeling in asthma with others that address the complexity of clinical phenotypes of asthma, and will include updates on the application of new technologies to develop biomarkers to guide personalized treatment. Anticipated outcomes include greater understanding of mechanisms of disease other than type 2 inflammation and appreciation of the need to forge stronger collaborations between clinical and basic scientists to advance the goal of personalized asthma treatment. The overarching goal of the meeting is to bring together world-class researchers with expertise in immunology, cell biology and asthma disease biology to permit exchange of ideas and facilitate development of new scientific directions and therapeutic approaches for asthma. Relevance to NHLBI: Asthma is a leading and ever-increasing cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide and represents a significant burden on healthcare resources. Moreover, new treatments only work for a proportion of patients. We need to increase our understanding of the clinical disease phenotypes as well as of the underlying pathobiology in the lung. This meeting will bring together experts in clinical phenotyping, lung immunology and biology with leading authorities in novel technologies. We envisage that the meeting will enhance our knowledge of lung biology in general as well as in asthma specifically.
Asthma is a common disease affecting people from childhood to old age. It causes significant morbidity and mortality and it represents a significant economic burden worldwide. The Keystone Symposia meeting on Asthma: From Pathway Biology to Precision Therapeutics seeks to addresses the unmet needs of many patients with asthma and especially the subgroup of patients with more severe disease. The meeting will bring together a diverse group of experts, including those with backgrounds in systems and computational biology, animal models, translational research, drug development and clinical trials. The data presentations and the time for discussion at the meeting will help identify key novel pathways, biomarkers and treatments, as important outputs from this conference.
