The International Federation of Pigment Cell Societies (IFPCS, originally IPCS) was established in 1941 to support scientists and physicians around the world who study normal and transformed pigment cells, and associated pigmentary diseases. Seven Institutes of the NIH now have laboratories actively studying pigmentation from developmental biology to differentiation/function to neoplastic transformation. International Pigment Cell Conferences (IPCC) have been held every 3 years (rotating from Asia, Europe and the Americas); they typically attract 300-400 abstracts and from 400-500 attendees. The 19th IPCC will be held at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Reston, VA on Sept 18-22, 2005 with the theme 'A Focus on Human Pigmentary Diseases"""""""". Our Organizing and Program Committees span virtually all disciplines of study in the field and we anticipate a Symposium and/or Concurrent Session directed to each major area, presented in a temporal sequence. Early Symposia will address Developmental topics (e.g. Hirschsprung syndrome, Waardenburg syndrome and piebaldism), middle Symposia will focus on Differentiation (including constitutive pigmentation, Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome, Griscelli syndrome and oculocutaneous albinism) and later Symposia will cover later clinical pigmentary diseases (such as Melanoma, Naevi and Parkinson's disease). The Goals of this Conference are to foster discussions of international experts and to encourage new collaborations between laboratories studying various pigmentary diseases. NIH and the Washington DC area will attract a maximum of scientists in the field due to the accessibility of this area to participants from NIH, the rest of the US, as well as from Europe and from Asia.
The Specific Aims of this proposal are: 1) to provide travel support for Invited Keynote Lecturers (all are internationally recognized scientists, many not being members of the IFPCS), 2) to provide partial travel support to students and junior faculty to attend this meeting, and 3) to pay for publication expenses.
