The 18th Hemoglobin Switching Conference

描述（由申请人提供）：两年一次的血红蛋白转换会议已经持续了31年，其取得巨大成功的原因有很多。首先也是最重要的是，组织者（Stamatoyannopoulos， Higgs和Engel）努力识别并强调新的发现，总是包括新的研究者和研究，影响血红蛋白转换的过程。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（除了每年有14000人参加的ASH会议）。第三，从历史上看，这些会议已经演变成关注科学发展的方向，因此仍然是极具话题性的，它不仅是展示第一个cDNA克隆的论坛，第一个克隆的人类基因组位点（以及相同的第一个突变），促红细胞生成素的结构，而且还启动了许多当前该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教师首次在本次会议的全体会议上介绍了他们的工作。第四，这是唯一一次关于这一主题的会议，来自美国国内外的研究人员的出席人数大致相同，这一事实反映在美国和欧洲之间的场地每两年轮换一次。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，因为国际可达性和经济。

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.