Gordon Conference-Autophagy/Stress/Development/Disease

描述(申请人提供)：戈登关于压力、发育和疾病中的自噬的研究会议将于2003年6月22日至27日在缅因州沃特维尔的科尔比学院举行，此后每两年举行一次。这是一个新的戈登研究会议，代表着有史以来第一次在美国举行的关于自噬的会议。 自噬是一种通过自噬溶酶体大量降解长寿命蛋白质和细胞器的细胞途径，近年来成为生物医学研究的一个令人兴奋的新领域。自噬的调节在细胞对营养缺乏的反应、发育、衰老等正常生理过程以及宿主对微生物感染的反应中起着至关重要的作用；自噬的解除调节也与心脏病、神经退行性疾病以及最明显的癌症等疾病有关。直到最近，人们对自噬的遗传学、生物化学和分子细胞生物学以及自噬在正常生理学和病理生理学中的确切作用知之甚少。然而，在过去的十年里，有几个重大的科学进展正在给该领域带来革命性的变化，包括鉴定介导自噬的进化保守基因，阐明自噬的生化途径，以及阐明自噬在正常生理学和疾病病理生理学中的作用。这些最新的进展创造了肥沃的科学基础，可能导致未来十年研究的爆炸性增长，这些研究将进一步阐明自噬的分子机制和自噬在不同生物过程中的作用，并为癌症、神经退行性疾病、心脏病和传染病的治疗确定重要的新靶点。 这次会议将汇集知名的国际顶尖科学家以及在自噬不同方面拥有专业知识的有前途的初级研究人员。会议将集中讨论自噬的生物化学和遗传学，自噬在发育中的作用，调节细胞生长控制和自噬的信号通路，自噬和凋亡之间的相互关系，以及自噬在癌症和其他疾病病理中的作用。通过为成熟的和初级的研究人员创建一个科学论坛来交流与自噬有关的想法，预计这次会议将对这一极其重要的新兴生物医学研究领域的发展做出里程碑式的贡献。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Gordon Research Conference on Autophagy in Stress, Development, and Disease will be held June 22-27, 2003 at Colby College in Waterville, Maine and at biannual intervals thereafter. This is a new Gordon Research Conference and represents the first meeting ever to be held in the United States on autophagy. Autophagy is a cellular pathway involving the bulk degradation of long-lived proteins and organelles by autophagolysosomes, and has recently emerged as an exciting novel area of biomedical research. The regulation of autophagy plays an essential role in the cellular response to nutrient deprivation, in development, in normal physiologic processes such as aging, and in the host response to microbial infection; the deregulation of autophagy has also been implicated in diseases such as heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, and most notably, cancer. Until recently, very little has been known about the genetics, biochemistry, and molecular cell biology of autophagy or about the precise role of autophagy in normal physiology and pathophysiology. However, there have been several major scientific advances in the past decade that are revolutionizing the field, including the identification of evolutionarily conserved genes that mediate autophagy, elucidation of the biochemical pathways of autophagy, and elucidation of the role of autophagy in normal physiology and disease pathophysiology. These recent advances have created a fertile scientific foundation that is likely to lead to an explosion of research in the next decade that will further elucidate the molecular mechanisms of autophagy and the role of autophagy in diverse biologic processes as well as identify important new targets for the treatment of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, heart disease, and infectious diseases. This meeting will bring together established leading international scientists as well as promising junior investigators who have expertise in diverse aspects of autophagy. The conference will focus on the biochemistry and genetics of autophagy, the role of autophagy in development, signaling pathways that regulate cell growth control and autophagy, the interrelationship between autophagy and apoptosis, and the role of autophagy in cancer and other disease pathologies. By creating a scientific forum for established and junior investigators to exchange ideas related to autophagy, it is anticipated that this meeting will make a landmark contribution to the development of this critically important, emerging area of biomedical research.