This application requests funds for support of the Aspen Perinatal Biology Conference on August 28-31, 2010. This Conference is organized every 3 years to encompass topics related to intrauterine stress and its impact on placental development and fetal outcomes. Its focus is to identify perinatal mechanisms that link maternal illnesses during pregnancy and fetal adaptations and has broad implication for understanding maternal/fetal health and the long term consequences of fetal programming on the offspring. Growth restricted fetuses are born with an increased risk of hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. Recent studies have now identified altered nutrition (both the under- and overfed mother), hypoxia, gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and drug exposure as intrauterine stressors that alter specific cellular mechanisms leading to both immediate consequences in the fetus and lasting effects into adulthood through fetal programming. Because perinatal medicine is a multidisciplinary field, the goal of the conference is to bring together both basic scientists and perinatologists to discuss the maternal, placental and fetal mechanisms that contribute to both normal and altered fetal outcomes. The proposed 2.5 day conference is organized into 3 Plenary Slide Sessions, 1 key note lecture, 2 poster sessions and 2 Workshop Lectures. The 4 specific goals of the conference are: 1) to understand the cellular mechanisms associated with maternal adaptations during pregnancy, 2) to discuss the current mechanisms important in placental function and fetal maturation, 3) to understand the interaction of adverse intrauterine environments on fetal development, and 4) to identify key factors important in contributing to placental/fetal adaptations to adverse pregnancy conditions. The 3 Plenary Sessions will include topics on 1) Maternal Conditions Causing Intrauterine Stress, 2) Placental Mechanisms of Nutrient Transport/Endocrine Production, and 3) Fetal Adaptive Mechanisms. Speakers will include 1) senior investigators, well established in their fields of maternal, placental and fetal mechanisms of adaptation during pregnancy, 2) young investigators, beginning to forge a successful career in reproductive medicine, and 3) postdocs and graduate students. Poster sessions will provide young investigators a format for direct interaction with conferees. The key note lecture will be """"""""Mechanisms of Placental Angiogenesis"""""""", which will have broad interest to the field of perinatal biology. The Workshop Lectures will address """"""""Placental Imaging Techniques"""""""" and """"""""Molecular Regulation of Epigenetic Mechanisms"""""""". This Conference of basic scientists and clinicians, whose broad interests lie in understanding the mechanisms underlying adverse pregnancy outcomes, is expected to generate new ideas on how to address the impact of intrauterine stress in global health issues such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
This application requests funds for support of the Aspen Perinatal Biology Conference on August 28-31, 2010. This will be a 3d Conference organized into 3 Plenary Slide Sessions, 1 key note lecture, 2 poster sessions and 2 Workshop Lectures. Because perinatal medicine is a multidisciplinary field, the goal of the conference is to bring together both basic scientists and perinatologists to discuss the effects of a stressed intrauterine environment on maternal, placental and fetal mechanisms that contribute to altered fetal outcomes.
