This application seeks partial funding for a FASEB Summer Research Conference on Mechanisms of Liver Growth, Differentiation, and Molecular Pathogenesis of Hepatic Diseases, to be held August 7-12, 2004 in Snowmass, Colorado. The major goal of this conference is to foster interactions between researchers in the critical area of liver growth regulation with implications for liver disease. The 2004 conference will have a particular focus on the close relationship between liver and pancreas during development with an emphasis on stem cell biology. Recent progress has clearly highlighted the potential of hepatic progenitor cells to give rise to insulin producing cells, and liver biology has therefore become of importance in the fight against diabetes. Four of the proposed sessions have direct relevance in this regard and focus on hepatic development, pancreatic embryology, liver stem cells and liver gene transfer specifically. In addition, there will be sessions specifically related to hepatic disorders such as liver cirrhosis, hepatitis B and C infections and how these disorders lead to hepatocellular carcinoma. The liver has become one of the best models for understanding basic aspects of cell and tissue growth and regeneration in an organismal context, providing insight not only into hepatic diseases, but also the development, function, mechanisms regulating hepatic proliferation and cancer, and interactions of various organ systems. The 2004 conference will continue recent efforts to refocus the meeting so that more contemporary areas of liver research will be included and more junior investigators will have an opportunity to present their work. Specifically, greater emphasis will be placed on how basic research on regulatory systems such as transcription factors and receptors, liver regeneration and hepatocellular carcinoma, and immunological processes, impacts hepatic pathophysiology and enhances mechanisms based approach to the clinical management of liver diseases.
