5th Symposium on Polyamines in Parasites

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The 5th Biennial Symposium on Polyamines in Parasites will be held at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan on July 7-9, 2008. Dr. Patrick M. Woster, Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Wayne State University was elected to serve as the 2008 conference organizer. Dr. Woster has been an invited speaker at the past three Polyamines in Parasites symposia, and served as a discussion leader at the past two symposia. The focus of the 2007 meeting will be the polyamine pathway as a drug target in parasitic protozoa and helminths. Participants will include principal investigators, postdoctoral fellows, and students from both United States and international laboratories that are working directly in the area of the meeting, as well as local students at the graduate and undergraduate level. The meeting will be interdisciplinary in nature; thus far, participants with expertise in molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, synthetic chemistry, and structural biology have expressed interest in attending the meeting. The meeting will be composed of a series of 30 min talks given by meeting participants and will include a poster session for students and postdoctoral fellows to present their work. The goal of the meeting is to assess the state of research in the area of polyamines in parasites, focusing particularly upon the utility of this pathway as a drug target in both extracellular and intracellular protozoa, as well as in parasitic worms. Topics for discussion will include: Polyamine Metabolic Pathways in Protozoa, Polyamine Metabolic Pathways in Parasitic Worms, Validation of Polyamine Enzyme Drug Targets, Biochemical and Structural Characterization of Polyamine Enzymes, Drug Discovery and Inhibitor Design, and Drug Resistance Mechanisms. Disease-causing parasitic organisms contain polyamine metabolic enzymes that are structurally distinct from their human counterparts, or that do not exist in humans, and thus these enzymes represent attractive targets for antiparasitic drug discovery. Scientific experts in the areas of parasite polyamine metabolism, parasitic enzyme structure and antiparasitic drug discovery from both academia and industry will meet at the 5th Biennial Symposium on Polyamines in Parasites, to be held at Wayne State University on July 7-9, 2008. The goal of the meeting is to assess the state of research in the area of polyamines in parasites, develop new scientific collaborations and coordinate drug discovery efforts, with the aim of identifying effective drug treatments for uncontrolled parasitic diseases.