This proposal requests partial support for the Eleventh Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and the first Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on ?Salivary Glands and Exocrine Biology? entitled ?Understanding development, function and regeneration of secretory tissues: novel signaling pathways and approaches to treat exocrine disorders? to be held from February 18-24, 2017 at the Hotel Galvez in Galveston, Texas. The GRC will include plenary sessions on exocrine gland development, regenerative approaches, functional relevance of salivary proteins, membrane functions in exocrine glands, understanding the etiology of autoimmune disease, targeting inflammation to retard disease pathogenesis and current topics in cell biology of exocrine glands. Invited speakers for the GRC will include eminent scientists from academia, industry and government and talks will include both senior and junior scientists from diverse fields who will present current unpublished research findings on subjects identified by previous meeting organizers and attendees as of greatest interest to the field. Several keynote speakers will be invited to deliver seminars on stem cell therapeutics, clinical genomics and clinical trials for Sjgren?s syndrome, a common autoimmune disease that affects exocrine glands and negatively impacts the quality of life of patients for whom no suitable and effective therapies are available. An innovation at this GRC will be inclusion for the first time of a GRS to be held just prior to the GRC that will invite only speakers who are graduate students and postdoctoral associates in a wide variety of laboratories worldwide. These junior scientists at the GRS will also attend the GRC where many of them will be chosen to give seminars that will be included in the plenary sessions. In addition, poster sessions will be held daily at the GRC to enable all attendees to present and discuss their data in an open forum. The overall goal of the GRC and GRS will be to foster scientific exchanges and engender research collaborations in disciplines that are viewed as having a major impact on the development of novel strategies to improve human health.
Specific Aims i n line with the NIDCR mission include: 1) to present a program of topical interest to scientists in academia, industry and government and to assemble junior and senior investigators in a pleasant setting where they will have opportunities to present unpublished findings before a knowledgeable audience and engage in a wide range of critical research discussions; 2) to offer for the first time, a GRS to be attended by graduate students and postdoctoral associates who will present their novel research findings before an audience of their peers and; 3) to emphasize presentations on state-of- the-art methodologies of interest to the exocrine biology field towards the goal of developing innovative approaches to the improvement of human health by preventing disorders of secretory organs.
Exocrine biology includes a variety of secretory organs, including salivary glands, lacrimal glands and the pancreas. Current research is focused on preventing diseases of these tissues, including autoimmune diseases that lead to tissue degeneration, and environmental and genetic factors that lead to the loss of secretory function. The major goal of the GRC and GRS on Salivary Glands and Exocrine Biology is to foster scientific exchanges and engender research collaborations in disciplines related to exocrine biology and disease that will have a major impact on novel strategies to improve human health.
