Transplantation Immunology Conference

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is an application for partial funding of a conference on "Transplantation Immunology" that will be held under the auspices of FASEB at Vermont Academy, Saxton's River, Vermont, June 15-20, 2002. This new FASEB conference topic will reflect recent, important developments in molecular and cellular immunology that have direct relevance to improved understanding of the mechanistic basis of transplant rejection and tolerance. Equally significant, are the implications of these findings for the development of improved therapies of cell and organ graft rejection, that may lead ultimately, to the consistent achievement of clinical transplantation tolerance. Emphasis will be placed on the most recent insights in sessions that will be devoted to 1) allorecognition and lymphocyte activation; 2) endothelial cell-leukocyte interaction and the role of chemokines; 3) endothelial cells in chronic rejection and its prevention; 4) novel costimulatory pathways, cytokines, and apoptosis; 5) dendritic cells in immune reactivity and tolerance; 6) regulatory cells; 7) approaches to clinical transplantation tolerance and 8) xenotransplantation, stem cell biology and cloning. An important aspect of this conference will be the interaction between scientists with expertise in basic immunology and molecular genetics/biology and transplantation scientists and clinicians. Approximately 180 participants will be selected from amongst those investigators most likely to share the most recent new knowledge, and to contribute to stimulating exchange of ideas/concepts. Speakers and poster presenters will be those who have made the most significant recent contributions. There will also be two poster presentation sessions. The conference will provide an important forum for dialogue between contributors from a broad range of subspecialties. The aggregate result should be an overview and integrated perspective/consensus of this rapidly moving field of applied biomedical science. An important goal will be evaluation of future research directions, as well as critical appraisal of contemporary "cutting edge" research.