Lymphocyte Activation and Signaling

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The cells of the immune system are armed with a dizzying array of signaling receptors requiring them to integrate an enormous amount of information about their environment to mount the appropriate biologic response. Over the last several years much has been learned about the biochemical nature of the signaling cascades initiated by interactions of individual receptors with their ligands. This progress presents an exciting new challenge, namely, to understand how multiple signals are integrated in the context of the entire cell to bring about the ultimate cellular response. We propose to bring together distinguished scientists working at the cutting edge of immune cell signaling to describe their new findings and to address how these issues relate to human disease. The proposed meeting will provide a view of how the initial encounter of immune cell signaling receptor with their ligands ultimately leads to the biological response be it activation, differentiation, movement, or cell death and how this knowledge is being translated to important clinical problems in autoimmunity, immunodeficiency, vaccines, tumor immunity, transplantation and infectious diseases. The organizers of this conference have designed a program that will bring together principal investigators, fellows and students who are exploring how signaling pathways are integrated within and among immune cells to yield the appropriate response and how these signaling pathways may be manipulated to alter immune cell function for therapeutic purposes.