Molecular Biology of the Vasculature

本次会议将集中讨论胰岛发育生物学和胰岛移植。这两个领域都处于几个科学学科（发育生物学、干细胞、转录因子、移植、细胞生物学、基因调控和糖尿病）的前沿，并且是激烈科学研究的主题。胰岛移植是一种新兴的糖尿病治疗方法，由于缺乏足够数量的胰岛进行移植而受到严重阻碍。了解胰岛发育的一个主要目标是从干细胞（成体或胚胎）中产生新的胰岛。与这两个领域相关的挑战是对机制的不完全理解

The proposed meeting will be an integrated program on pancreatic islet developmental biology and pancreatic islet transplantation. Both areas are on the forefront of several scientific disciplines (developmental biology, stem cells, transcription factors, transplantation, cell biology, gene regulation, and diabetes) and are the subject of intense scientific investigation. Islet transplantation, an emerging therapy for diabetes, is severely hampered by the lack of a sufficient number of islets for transplantation. A major goal of work to understand pancreatic islet development is the generation of new islets from stem cells (adult or embryonic). Challenges relevant to both fields are an incomplete understanding of the mechanisms controlling normal islet development and function and lack of information about islet cell differentiation, survival, and function after transplantation. The proposed program will focus on these scientific challenges by reviewing progress in these rapidly expanding fields and discussing strategies to overcome these obstacles. The proposed program will fill a unique need in that prior scientific meetings have focused on one topic or the other and have not brought together the leaders in both fields. The planning committee, consisting of two investigators with expertise in islet transplantation and two with expertise in pancreatic islet development, has structured the program to foster interaction between scientists and thus accelerate progress in these scientific areas.