Conference on Roles of TGF-Beta in Disease Pathogenesis

描述(申请人提供)：对转化生长因子-β信号转导途径的阐明预示着一个令人振奋的新纪元，使人们能够深入了解这种多功能分子在正常成人生理和疾病发病机制中的分子机制，特别是伤口愈合、纤维化、癌症发生和免疫细胞功能障碍。对受体激酶的表征和对Smad信号通路的鉴定已经确定了新的分子靶点，并导致了该通路新的抑制剂的开发。对转化生长因子-β本身生物化学认识的增加也使抗配体方法的发展成为可能。在转化生长因子-贝塔的历史上，这是一个特别令人兴奋的时刻，因为人们已经足够了解它的行动，从而确定了它在其中发挥作用的特定疾病。最后，制药公司和生物技术公司第一次开发了控制这一途径的新方法，目标是开发用于伤口愈合、纤维化和癌症治疗的新疗法。我们这次会议的目标是聚集专注于转化生长因子-β的基本生物化学和利用动物模型来阐明其在疾病发病机制中的作用的研究人员，以及正在开发这些基于转化生长因子-β途径的新药的生物技术/制药公司的研究人员。希望这次会议既能加深我们对转化生长因子-β在疾病中作用机制的认识，又能为疾病的临床治疗提供新的治疗方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Elucidation of the signal transduction pathways of TGF-Beta has heralded an exciting new era enabling insights into molecular mechanisms of this multifunctional molecule in both normal adult physiology and disease pathogenesis, including especially wound healing, fibrosis, carcinogenesis and immune cell dysfunction. Characterization of the receptor kinases and identification of the Smad signaling pathway has identified new molecular targets and led to development of novel inhibitors of the pathway. Increased understanding of the biochemistry of TGF-Beta itself has also enabled developed of anti-ligand approaches. This is a particularly exciting time in the history of TGF-Beta as enough is known about its actions to have identified particular diseases in which it plays a role and finally, for the first time, pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies are developing new approaches to control this pathway with the goal of developing new therapies for wound healing, for fibrosis, and for treatment of cancer. Our goal for this conference is to bring together researchers focused on the basic biochemistry of TGF-Beta and on the use of animal models to elucidate its roles in disease pathogenesis and researchers from Biotech/Pharma who are developing these new drugs based on the TGF-Beta pathway. The hope is that this meeting will both enhance our insights into pathogenetic mechanisms of action of TGF-Beta in disease and provide novel therapeutic approaches for clinical treatment of disease.