? The six members of the GATA transcription factor family have now been shown to be vital for numerous ? distinct developmental events and for the differentiation of multiple organs and cell lineages, including the fat, blood, cardiovascular, nervous, skin, liver and urogenital systems. This is a very active field of research that relates directly to the general inquiry of regulation of gene expression during development. This field is also of immediate medical importance, since it has been shown that a GATA factor is responsible for the increased incidence in one form of leukemia among Downs' syndrome patients (mutations in GATA1) and mutation of a different GATA factor (GATA3) leads to human HDR syndrome, a haploinsufficient disorder resulting in hearing loss, kidney malformation and parathyroid endocrine dysfunction. Even more recently, mutations in GATA4 have been shown to be associated with congenital heart disease. We believe that these highly focused conferences on the GATA factors held every three years have played a seminal role in illuminating numerous developmental pathways of immediate importance in understanding human disease, and we anticipate that this conference will similarly lead to new collaborations and an even deeper understanding of how ineffective gene ? regulation by these proteins lead to human disorders. ? ? ?
