The 18th Hemoglobin Switching Conference

描述（由申请人提供）：一年两次的血红蛋白转换会议已经持续了31年，其巨大的成功有多种原因。首先，组织者（Stamatoyannopoulos，Higgs和Engel）努力识别并强调新发现，始终包括影响血红蛋白转换过程的新调查人员和研究。其次，这是唯一一个将基础科学家和临床医生聚集在一起讨论血红蛋白病的分子和发育起源以及治疗方法的场所（除了年度ASH会议，有超过14，000名与会者）。第三，这些会议在历史上已经演变成关注科学所引导的任何领域，因此仍然非常热门，并且不仅是展示第一个cDNA克隆，第一个克隆的人类基因组位点的论坛（和第一个突变相同），促红细胞生成素的结构，但它也推出了许多目前在这一领域的领导者的职业生涯（事实上，许多博士后研究员和年轻的教师在这次会议的全体会议上首次介绍了他们的工作）。第四，这是关于这个主题的唯一一次会议，通常有来自美国内外的调查人员参加，这一事实反映在美国和欧洲之间一年两次的地点交替上。2012年，会议将再次在加利福尼亚州蒙特雷的Asilomar会议中心举行，这是因为国际交通便利和经济实惠。 公共卫生相关性：最常见的遗传性人类疾病是血红蛋白病，这种疾病破坏了红细胞的功能，红细胞将氧气运送到组织以执行基本代谢，并且还将废物带回肺部以交换新鲜氧气。我们现在从遗传和生物化学的角度对这些代谢疾病的起源有了很大的了解，但我们才刚刚开始了解如何设计有效的治疗方法来治疗它们。这个国际会议每两年在欧洲和美国轮流举行，是同类会议中唯一的一次，为研究疾病特征和病因的分子和细胞生物学家与治疗这些疾病的临床同行之间提供了一个分享信息的论坛。这次会议有意识地比任何其他论坛都更包容青年、妇女和少数群体的参与。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The biannual Hemoglobin Switching Conference has been ongoing for 31 years, and there are multiple reasons for its resounding success. First and foremost, the organizers (Stamatoyannopoulos, Higgs and Engel) strive to identify and then highlight new discoveries by always including new investigators and studies that impinge on the process of hemoglobin switching. Second, this is the only venue (other than the annual ASH meeting, with > 14,000 attendees) that brings together basic scientists and clinicians to discuss both the molecular and developmental origins of, and treatments for, hemoglobinopathies. Third, the meetings have historically morphed into focusing on wherever the science led, thus remaining extremely topical, and has not only been the forum for presenting the first cDNA clones, the first cloned human genomic locus (and the first mutations in same), the structure of erythropoietin, but it has also launched the careers of many of the current leaders in this field (indeed, numerous postdoctoral fellows and young faculty first presented their work in plenary sessions at this conference). Fourth, this is the only meeting on this topic that routinely has approximately equal attendance by investigators from both inside and outside the U.S., and this fact is reflected by the bi- annual alternation in site between the U.S. and Europe. In 2012 the Conference will again be held at the Asilomar Conference Center in Monterrey, CA, because of both international accessibility and economy. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The most commonly inherited human disorders are hemoglobinopathies, diseases that disrupt the function of the red blood cells that carry oxygen to tissues to execute basic metabolism and that also carry waste products back to the lungs for exchange for fresh oxygen. We now understand a great deal about the origins of these metabolic diseases from a genetic and biochemical perspective, but we are only beginning to understand how we might devise effective therapies to treat them. This international conference, held every two years alternating between Europe and the U.S., is the only meeting of its kind, and provides a forum for sharing information between molecular and cell biologists who study disease characteristics and etiology and their clinical counterparts who treat these diseases. This conference is consciously more inclusive of young people, women and minority participation than any other forum.