Ephrins and Cancer

描述（由申请人提供）：对ephrin及其配体功能的新认识为发育和癌症生物学带来了新的见解。最近，在结肠癌、前列腺癌、胃癌、食道癌、肺癌、乳腺癌、神经母细胞瘤、脑瘤和黑色素瘤中，有报道称ephrin异常与恶性行为的转变或进展有关。生物学和病理学，以及分子、遗传学、基因组学和实验药物领域的各种专业知识被应用于理解ephrin作为正常细胞功能介质或治疗癌症的靶标的作用和用途，这要求来自这些不同学科和领域的研究人员集中协调，共享信息，发展协同合作，并确定差距和桥梁，以加速进展。持续的、多年的年度会议被认为是一种最佳策略，通过它可以影响建立更广泛的连通性，更全面地了解该领域的不同方面，并展示在ephrin的生物学、病理学和药理学方面提高的生产力。一年一度的“ephrin和癌症”会议的目的是：1)举办一个多学科会议，将ephrin生物学的主要思想家聚集在一起，集中讨论科学的最新进展；2)针对战略性受邀者填补与肿瘤过程相关的ephrin生物学方面的“空白”；3)通过曝光、分析和展示ephrin领域新兴的独特研究优势，促进协同合作；4)出版会议记录，向广大癌症生物学听众介绍这一领域的进展；5)促进未被充分代表的少数民族或来自贫困背景的个人参与卫生科学研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The emerging understanding of the function of ephrins and their ligands raises the prospect of new insights to developmental and cancer biology. Recently, for cancers of the colon, prostate, stomach, esophagus, lung, breast, neuroblastoma, brain tumor, and melanoma, ephrin aberrations are reported, and linked to transformation or progression of malignant behaviors. The varied domains of expertise in biology and pathology, as well as molecular, genetics, genomics, and experimental Pharmaceuticals being applied to understand the role and utility of ephrins as mediators of normal cell function or as targets to treat cancer argue for a central coordinated gathering of researchers from these disparate disciplines and fields to share information, to develop synergistic collaborations, and to identify gaps and bridges to accelerated progress. A sustained, multi-year, annual meeting is esteemed to be an optimal strategy by which to affect building broader connectivity, more comprehensive appreciation for the different aspects of the field, and to demonstrate enhanced productivity in the biology, pathology, and pharmacology of ephrins. The aims of the annual "Ephrins and Cancer" meetings are: 1) to host a multidisciplinary meeting that brings the leading thinkers of ephrin biology to a focused gathering for updates on the science; 2) to target strategic invitees to fill "gaps" in aspects of ephrin biology related to cancer processes; 3) to promote synergistic collaborations through exposure, profiling, and demonstration of unique research strengths emerging in the ephrin field; 4) to publish proceedings from the meetings as a means of apprising the general cancer biology audience of advances in this arena; and 5) to promote engagement by underrepresented minorities or individuals from underprivileged backgrounds in health science research.