December 26, 2007
University of
Massachusetts to Present at GTCbio’s 6th Cytokines and Inflammation (January 28-29, 2008,
Orlando, Florida
Eicke Latz, Assistant Professor in Medicine of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology at University of Massachusetts Medical School will give a presentation entitled “Mechanisms of Crystal Recognition by Inflammasomes†at GTCbio’s 6th Cytokines and Inflammation (January 28-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida.)
The major task of the immune system is to recognize and respond to conditions that are of danger to the body, such as infections, cancer and traumatic tissue damage. Immune cells express several classes of germline-encoded signaling receptor molecules that can recognize and signal the presence of foreign material (from viruses and bacteria in case of an infection) and altered self molecules that appear under certain disease conditions.
Toll-like receptors are membrane bound immune receptors that recognize a broad range of molecular signatures in the extracellular space and in endo-lysosomal compartments. In the cytoplasm a family of NOD-like receptors (NLR) are expressed that recognize microbial material and can sense altered self molecules that appear under certain disease states. It has recently been shown that crystallization of normally soluble molecules can be interpreted as a danger signal and lead to activation of immune cells via NLRs. For example monosodium urate crystals, which appear in the clinical syndrome known as gout, are potent activators of NLRs. The NLR family members are thought to assemble into multimeric receptor complexes, termed inflammasomes, which control the active state of the inflammatory caspase-1. Active caspase-1 is able to cleave the proforms of the cytokines IL-1b, IL-18 and IL-33 into the active mature cytokines. Thus, inflammasomes are important receptor complexes which control the processing of highly inflammatory cytokines and may play a key role in the development of auto-inflammatory and chronic inflammatory diseases.
The conference also features presentations from other leading organizations including Alba Therapeutics, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Biogen-Idec, ChemoCentryx, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Cleveland Clinic, FDA, Genentech, Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, Hôpital Edouard Herriot, McGill University, MedImmune, Merck, Merck-Serono, NIH, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Roche Palo Alto, Schering Plough, St. Judes Children’s Research Hospital, University of Glasgow, and University Medical Center Utrecht. The full agenda is available online at www.gtcbio.com.
GTCbio’s 6th Cytokines and Inflammation conference will take place on January 28-29, 2008 at the Orlando Metropolitan Resort in
Orlando, Florida and will cover Cytokines Signaling and Regulation, Inflammation and Cancer, Technological Developments in Cytokines Biology, Chemokines, and Targeting of Cytokine Receptors
For more information including a detailed agenda, exhibitor opportunities and registration information visit http://gtcbio.com/userAgenda.aspx?id=115
ABOUT GTCbio
GTCbio organizes conferences specifically for the biomedical and biopharmaceutical industries. Our goal is to facilitate the exchange of biopharmaceutical and biomedical intelligence between industry leaders, academic and government organizations, and the financial community.
GTCbio is a subsidiary of Global Technology Community, LLC, a privately held company founded in 2002.
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