This application requests funds to provide support for """"""""Heme Oxygenase 2005 - the 4th International Conference"""""""" to be held from October 5-8, 2005. The conference will be held at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. This hotel is widely used for conferences and has excellent facilities, including all facilities for disabled persons. The conference dates are October 6-9, 2005. The participants for the main part are investigators (MDs, PhDs, and students) active in the field. However, given publicity we will mount, we expect that individuals interested in the possible application of the products of HO-1 to clinical problems will also attend. Scientists and physicians currently not involved in investigations in heme oxygenase will hopefully also find the conference of interest. The attendees are from all parts of the world involved in biomedical and biological research including, in addition to the United States, Australia, China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, England, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Poland, India and others. The objective of this meeting is to provide a format for the exchange and integration of new information on the molecular and cell biology as well as pre-clinical and proposed clinical protocols being considered in the field. The proposed meeting will bring together basic scientists from a variety of disciplines to present and discuss the most recent information on heme oxygenase and the products of the degradation of heme by heme oxygenases: carbon monoxide (CO), Fe++ and biliverdin. This Conference will, as it has in the past, act as a major stimulus for international research into the nature and function of these substances and to the path to clinical application. The focus of the meeting will be on the involvement of the heme oxygenases in the cardiac, vascular, pulmonary and other organ systems as well as on organ transplantation. Lay Summary: The heme oxygenase system is important in maintaining normalcy in the body. It prevents certain responses of the body, like inflammation, from becoming too strong and becoming destructive. The parts of the system will likely be useful to treat a wide variety of human disorders.
