Cardiac Pacemaking and Conduction System Symposium

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Partial support is requested for one year for a research symposium entitled the "Choreography of the Heart Beat: The Cardiac Pacemaking and Conduction System" to be held as a meeting-within-a-meeting over two days at the Experimental Biology Conference 2004 in Washington, D.C. between April 17-21, 2004. The cardiac pacemaking and conduction system (PCS) is vital for generating and synchronizing the heartbeat. Dysfunction of this vital system can be a direct cause of cardiac conduction disturbance, arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. There have been recent notable advances in our understanding of the pacemaker system biology - particularly with respect to its development, cellular organization and electrophysiology. An opportunity and need exists to bring together basic scientists, clinicians and biomedical engineers working in disparate aspects of the PCS who would otherwise not typically find themselves at the same meeting venue (e.g. developmental biologists and electrophysiologists). The primary goals of our meeting are thus to; (1) bring investigators of the adult and embryonic heart together to share information on the PCS, (2) facilitate cross-disciplinary discussion and collaboration, and (3) bring young investigators to the meeting and encourage their ongoing participation in this burgeoning field. Topics to be covered will include the developmental biology, molecular and cell biology, morphology, electrophysiology and pathology of the developing and mature PCS. In addition to enabling us to support travel costs of the speakers, support by NIH/NHLBI will allow us to increase interactions between the participants and enhance accessibility of this meeting to students and junior faculty by decreasing travel costs. The meeting proceedings will be published in the form of full-length articles in a peer-reviewed journal. A website on the "cardiac pacemaking and conduction system" will be established at Medical University of South Carolina with content arising from work presented and published from the meeting.