With an emphasis on the integration of basic, translational and clinical approaches, the 58th annual Thomas L. Petty Aspen Lung Conference will focus on a central question: how can we translate knowledge regarding the mechanisms underlying airway immunology, inflammation and repair into effective, personalized approaches to asthma therapy? To address this central question, we have organized the program into a series of thematic sessions focusing on (i) new concepts in asthma beyond adaptive immunity including new arenas in T cell biology, the microbiome, macrophage biology, epigenetics and oxidant biology, (ii) host response/innate immune mechanisms and autophagy (iii) contemporary understanding of mechanotransduction and remodeling, and (iv) strategic approaches to translating scientific advances into impactful therapy including molecular phenotyping, corticosteroid resistance and drug development for patients with mild, moderate and severe asthma. By addressing these topics across six thematic sessions, we seek to accomplish the following objectives: 1) To provide an international forum for leading basic, translational, and clinical researchers to exchange ideas regarding fundamental concepts contributing to lung inflammation and remodeling. 2) To stimulate interactions between the scientific fields of immunology, pathology, genetics and molecular biology with the goal of identifying emerging, shared interests that may lead to the performance of more efficient and productive research. 3) To enhance the likelihood of success in translation of preclinical scientific advances into direct patient benefit by developing novel strategies to better implement scientific advances into patient care and by addressing challenges in clinical trial design. 4) To challenge and stimulate the scientific interests of trainees, attracting a new generation of junior investigators into the ield of asthma pathobiology.
The theme of the 58th Annual Thomas L. Petty Aspen Lung Conference is 'Asthma 2015: Mechanisms to Personalized Medicine'. By emphasizing an integrated approach, this meeting will address key scientific concepts as well as the practical implementation of advances in lung immunology, genetics/genomics, pathology and molecular biology. The overall objective of the conference is to foster collaboration between basic scientists and clinical investigators within the field of asthma through the identification of shard interests in lung inflammation, remodeling and translation to more personalized therapy. Development of these new collaborations is expected to yield substantive benefit to patient care. (End of Abstract)
