Ion Channelopathies are diseases resulting from malfunctions of ion channels. More than 20 years ago, mutations in genes encoding ion channels were described for the first time in patients with pulmonary, cardiac, neuronal and neuromuscular disorders defining genetic channelopathies. The field has since grown to include more than a hundred different diseases consistent with the distribution of ion channels throughout the human body. Channelopathies have now been linked to a wide variety of diseases, including epilepsy, migraine, several neurological disorders, blindness, deafness, diabetes, hypertension, several different cardiac arrhythmias, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, skin diseases and cancer just to name a few. Importantly, considering the central involvement of ion channels, these diseases share a great deal in common in terms of disease mechanisms and potential therapeutic development and yet this is the only meeting that exists allowing the entire Channelopathy community to come together. Therefore, Channelopathy 2020 plans to continue a tradition of international scientific meetings dedicated to the topic of channelopathy that began more than 20 years ago with the SkyTop conference in Pennsylvania. This meeting is now being held biannually and hosts approximatively 150 attendees. Channelopathy 2020 will be held from June 25-27 2020 in Qubec City, Canada. The meeting will be chaired by Isabelle Deschnes from The Ohio State University and Mohamed Chahine from Laval University. Together with our organizing committee that includes high profile researchers in the field, we have put an exciting program with 2 internationally recognized plenary speakers, 7 different sessions with 25 invited speakers and we will also have 9 short talks where the speakers will be selected from the abstract submitted and will be focused on inviting junior investigators giving them the opportunity to present their work and getting broad exposure in the field. We will also have two poster sessions. Channelopathy 2020 will place emphasis on comprehensive scientific themes shared across channel types and diseases seeking to catalyze on the knowledge from each channelopathy to benefit the broader field. Some of these themes will include basic mechanisms common to the different channelopathies, disease mechanisms at the organ level, novel therapeutics and precision medicine. The area of precision medicine is extremely germane to channelopathies since patients can respond differently to treatment based on the specific mutations and also genotype-phenotype discordance is an important concern for physicians . Knowledge gained from the different channelopathies covered in this meeting can be applied to other channelopathies and this cross-fertilization between the different presentations could lead ultimately to the development of novel therapeutic strategies applicable to the treatment of these different diseases. The unique format of this conference which includes speakers covering all different channelopathies will allow us to build multidisciplinary networks across these different diseases implicating ion channels.
The purpose of this proposal is specifically to seek support for the Channelopathy 2020 meeting that will be held from June 25-27 2020 in Qubec City, Canada. This conference is the only meeting inclusive of all channelopathies and has evolved into the premier forum for scientists working on genetic diseases caused by mutations in ion channels irrespective of the specific channel and organ involved. Channelopathies have now been linked to a wide variety of diseases, including epilepsy, migraine, blindness, deafness, diabetes, hypertension, cardiac arrhythmia, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, skin diseases and cancer just to name a few. This conference attracts a diverse group of researchers at all levels. The conference seeks to catalyze scientific advances by assembling a cross-disciplinary program to inspire and drive the channelopathy field highlighting emerging multidisciplinary investigational approaches, and featuring emerging therapeutic paradigms.
