Extensive work over the last 3 decades has established the importance of interferons and other cytokines in health and disease. Several cytokines are implicated in development, regulation of innate immunity, control of normal hematopoiesis and other important cellular and biological functions, and there is rapid accumulation of knowledge in these areas. Greater understanding of mechanisms of disease and novel concepts for therapy will emerge from multi-disciplinary forums where advances can be presented and discussed by established and trainee scientists. The overall objective of this application is to obtain support for junior investigator attendance to the 2010 joint annual meeting of the two major international Societies addressing cytokine-mediated immune host modulation in health and disease: International Cytokine Society and the International Society of Interferon and Cytokine Research. The conference is entitled, """"""""Cytokines in Infectious Diseases, Autoimmune Disorders and Cancer,"""""""" to be held in Chicago, October 3-7, 2010. This event unites the biomedical expertise and energies of the two societies and has become the world's most important annual conference on basic and clinical research on cytokines. Recent annual meetings were held in Lisbon, Montreal and Vienna. The 2010 joint society meeting (Cytokines 2010) will bring together all members of both Societies to maximize interactions and foster collaborations. The goals of this meeting are:
Specific Aim 1 : To facilitate interactions of young investigators and trainees with well-established researchers in the cytokine and interferon research fields and to provide a forum for them to present their work.
Specific Aim 2 : To facilitate the development of a meeting that will attract scientists from academic and governmental institutions and from industry to discuss recent advances on the roles of cytokines and interferons in infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders and cancer. Oral and poster presentations will be made by both invited speakers as well as speakers selected from submitted abstracts.
Specific Aim 3 : To facilitate the development of a program which highlights the most important research developments and advances in the cytokine and/or interferon fields under the subject headings: inflammation, T cell biology/adaptive immunity, signal transduction, IL-1 biology, immunoregulation, infectious diseases, microbial pattern recognition, cytokines in immune cell development and differentiation, novel methods in cytokine detection, micro-RNAs and post-transcriptional regulation, interferons in the treatment of diseases, novel therapeutic targets in the treatment of malignancies, cytokines and cell death, viral mechanisms that block cytokine responses, cytokines and infectious diseases;interferons and viral infections, cytokines/chemokines and their receptors, structure/function and cytokine-based therapies.
Specific Aim 4 : To enable under-represented minorities and persons with disabilities to participate in a meeting that facilitates interactions with other scientists in their fields.
The major goal of this proposal is to promote the participation of students, post-doctoral fellows and junior investigators at the annual joint meeting of the International Cytokine Society and the International Society of Interferon and Cytokine Research (Cytokines 2010). The objectives of this proposal are to promote and foster collaborations among junior and senior researchers working in various cytokine and interferon research areas, and promote excellent scientific training and work in these fields. Outstanding scientists from all over the world have been invited to attend and have accepted to participate at this meeting, and a strong scientific program with ambitious educational objectives for young scientists has been developed. The scientific areas that will be covered in this meeting are of high relevance to public health. Work in this field has resulted in major advances in the treatment of many human illnesses, including a broad spectrum of viral infections, different autoimmune disorders, as well as various hematological malignancies and solid tumors. This meeting provides the most important international forum in this area for interactions among scientists working in the cutting edge of these research areas. It is very likely that future work that will be developed based on concepts and collaborations emerging from this meeting, will have major implications in our understanding of the pathophysiology of various human illnesses and the development of novel therapeutic approaches.
