2007 Gordon Research Conference- Cancer and Stem Cells

描述(由申请者提供)：本次戈登研究会议将集中于整合关于正常干细胞自我更新的调节以及这一过程如何在癌症中被破坏的现有知识。干细胞在正常发育和多种人类疾病中发挥着关键作用。最近的证据表明，干细胞与衰老、癌症和遗传性疾病等器官(如肠道、皮肤、大脑和血液)有关。此外，了解干细胞自我再生的过程有望用于糖尿病、中风、心脏病发作、癌症、遗传性和获得性肌营养不良、脊索损伤以及包括头面部缺陷在内的出生缺陷等疾病的细胞治疗。最后，关于干细胞和癌症的GRC与生物恐怖主义有关。可能用于生物恐怖主义的最可怕的武器之一是使用辐射的袭击，要么是作为核弹，要么是用来在人口中心传播放射性物质的装置。暴露在辐射中的主要死亡原因是对血液、肠道和大脑的干细胞的毒性。如果一个人在对干细胞的直接毒性中幸存下来，那么由于干细胞室的遗传损伤，就有很高的癌症发展风险。提出了六个具体的目标：1.探讨调控正常干细胞自我更新的分子机制以及癌基因在这一过程中的作用。2.探索癌细胞自我更新与正常干细胞的不同之处。3.讨论在常见癌症发生的器官中正常细胞的发育层次的组织，以及在引起癌症/白血病细胞的特定组织中特定细胞类型(S)的身份。4.探索血液和实体肿瘤可能包含一个细胞层次的概念，其中并不是所有的癌细胞都能自我更新。5.介绍研究癌细胞与肿瘤正常间质细胞成分相互作用的最新研究。6.讨论开发专门针对自我更新的癌细胞的治疗方法的新战略。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This Gordon Research Conference will focus on integrating current knowledge concerning the regulation of self renewal of normal stem cells and how this process is disrupted in cancer. Stem cells play a critical role in normal development and a myriad of human diseases. Recent evidence has implicated stem cells in processes such as aging, cancer and hereditary diseases organs such as the gut, skin, brain and blood. In addition, understanding the process by which stem cells regenerate themselves holds promise for cell therapy for diseases such as diabetes, stroke, heart attacks, cancer, hereditary and acquired muscular dystrophy, spinal chord injury, and birth defects including cranial-facial defects. Finally, this GRC on Stem Cells and Cancer has relevance to bioterrorism. One of the most feared weapons that might be used in bioterrorism is an attack using radiation, either as a nuclear bomb or with a device used to spread radioactive material in a population center. The primary cause of death from exposure to radiation is toxicity to the stem cells of the blood, gut and brain. If a person survives the immediate toxicity to stem cells, then there is a high risk of cancer developing because of the genetic damage to the stem cell compartment. Six specific aims are proposed: 1. To explore the molecular mechanisms that regulate normal stem cell self renewal and the role that oncogenes play in this process. 2. To explore how cancer cell self renewal differs from that of normal stem cells. 3. To discuss the organization of the developmental hierarchy of normal cells in organs in which common cancers arise will be examined as well as the identity of the specific cell type(s) in a particular tissue that gives rise to cancer/leukemia cells. 4. To explore the notion that cancers of the blood and solid tumors may contain a cellular hierarchy where not all of the cancer cells can self renew. 5. To present the latest research investigating the interaction of cancer cells with normal stromal cell components of the tumor. 6. To discuss emerging strategies to develop therapies specifically targeting self renewing cancer cells.