Translating Pancreatic Risk into Personalized Medicine.  A Meeting of Thought Lea

Whitcomb, David

Abstract

We are proposing a scientific Course and workshop entitled: Translating Pancreatitis Risk into Personalized Medicine. A Meeting of Thought Leaders, Translational Scientists and Young Investigators Dedicated to Cooperative Efforts. The program will have four major sessions aimed at stimulating collaborative research in pancreatic diseases. The program will begin by a review and discussion of the advances made in IBD through the NIDDK IBD-Genetics Consortium. It is intended that both positive and negative lesions learned from this consortium will be applicable to the study of pancreatic diseases. This has been a highly successful group who has been working on diseases that are similar to chronic pancreatitis. This discussion will be followed by a review of the NAPS2 program, with the opportunity to immediately determine the strengths and weaknesses of existing pancreatic resources, and to help in planning for the future. The second session will focus on broader needs identified by the National Commission on Digestive Diseases related to pancreatic disorders. This report has been carefully developed and serves as an important document for program development. After a careful review and discussion of the Report, the investigators who have planned, or who are conducting multi-center trials will have the opportunity to present the study goals and specific aims of their respective studies. Discussion during this session will focus on identifying the needs that are being met, and the identification of major gaps in research planning or opportunities. Session three is more didactic, with the intention of bringing clinical researchers up to date on advances in epidemiology, statistics, population genetics, systems biology and selecting therapeutic targets (chemical genomics). In addition, the issue of developing and using biomarkers

Public Health Relevance

Pancreas physcian-scientists from multiple institution have come together to develop a two-day course entitled Translating Pancreatitis Risk into Personalized Medicine. A Meeting of Thought Leaders, Translational Scientists and Young Investigators Dedicated to Cooperative Efforts. The conference is designed to bring together physicians and clinical scientists from academic medical centers who have been active participants in clinical registries, clinical trials or clinical registries, or who are young investigators, and who want to participate in multicenter studies of pancreatic diseases. A dedicated meeting is needed for academic leaders and trainees in clinical pancreatic diseases. The critical element in planning this meeting is the dedicated time necessary to learn about topics of critical importance to clinical and translational research, and to discuss methods of implementation. Furthermore, ideas for overcoming major hurdles in clinical research can be discussed and shared. In addition, the rapid progress in technology, methodology and understanding of complex human diseases has left a major gap in the knowledge base of physicians and scientists outside of their immediate discipline. Thus, the proposed meeting will focus on translational research in pancreatic diseases in the area of gene-environmental interactions, risk assessment, disease detection and disease activity markers. New strategies for therapeutic intervention are also emerging and these approaches must be discussed