This application requests support for a Keystone Symposia meeting entitled NF-kappaB Signaling and Biology: From Bench to Bedside, organized by Michael Karin and Hao Wu, which will be held in British Columbia, Canada from March 18-23, 2012. The regulation and function of NF-kappaB have captivated molecular and cellular biologists, as well as immunologists, pathologists and drug developers for many years. Studies of NF-kappaB and its regulation have taught us many fundamental lessons and principals in basic biological sciences as well as in biomedicine. Although rapidly reaching maturity, with 25 years since its discovery, the NF-kappaB field remains vibrant and fertile, and never ceases to amaze with new groundbreaking discoveries. The Keystone Symposia meeting on NF-kappaB Signaling and Biology: From Bench to Bedside will cover the basic biochemistry of NF-kappaB signaling, how NF-kappaB accomplishes its main job as a transcription factor, the roles of the NF-kappaB system in immunity and inflammation, how NF-kappaB controls cell death, survival and metabolism, and how all of these functions go awry during disease development - something that we have learned both from studies of genetically altered mice and from studies of human genetic defects and pathology. Finally, this meeting will teach us how we might fix and cure these problems through the pharmacological targeting of the NF-kappaB system. Opportunities for interdisciplinary interactions will be significantly enhanced by the concurrent meeting on Ubiquitin Signaling, which will share a keynote address and three plenary sessions with this meeting.
NF-kappaB transcription factors are master regulators of immune and inflammatory responses which, when deregulated, are important causes of cancer, inflammatory diseases as well as diseases outside the immune system. The Keystone Symposia meeting on NF-kappaB Signaling and Biology: From Bench to Bedside will examine how we might fix and cure these problems through the pharmacological targeting of the NF-kappaB system.
