Conference Program
 
Chemotactic Cytokines
May 30 - June 4, 2010
Il Ciocco Hotel and Resort
Lucca (Barga), Italy
Chair:
Gerry Graham

Vice Chair:
Antal Rot

Application Deadline
Applications for this meeting must be submitted by May 9, 2010. Please apply early, as some meetings become oversubscribed (full) before this deadline. If the meeting is oversubscribed, it will be stated here. Applications will still be accepted for oversubscribed meetings. However, they will only be considered by the Conference Chair if more seats become available due to cancellations.

It is 20 years since the definition of chemokines as a functionally and biochemically distinct family of proteins. In this time the family has expanded from a small number of members to the current situation where almost 50 chemokines have been identified. In the intervening years much progress has been made in characterising the structure of chemokines, identifying their receptors and the unravelling the complex biologies in which they participate. As a result of these studies it is now clear that chemokines and their receptors are pivotal players in the orchestration of ‘immune’ tissue organogenesis as well as of the innate and adaptive immune responses. Thus chemokine biology now underpins a broad range of biological specialities.

Importantly, ‘translational’ studies have provided incontrovertible evidence of the importance of chemokines and their receptors in a range of prominent pathologies. Thus essentially all immune and inflammatory pathologies have, at their heart, a dysfunction of some sort in either chemokine or chemokine receptor expression or responses. In addition, 2 chemokine receptors (CCR5 and CXCR4) have been shown to play profound roles in HIV pathogenesis through their ability to act as co-receptors for viral entry. Finally, details of the roles for chemokines and their receptors in cancer and cancer metastasis have provided important insights into the orchestration of the complex processes of tumorigenesis. Importantly, these pathology-focused studies have highlighted chemokines and their receptors as prominent therapeutic targets and over 10 years of work in this area is now being reflected in a number of chemokine receptor blockers being approved for clinical use.

This Gordon Conference will therefore be a celebration of 20 years of research and innovation in the chemokine field. We will explore the complex and diverse biologies of chemokines and their receptors and will integrate this with an up-to-date understanding of the regulation of these molecules. In addition we will examine recent therapeutic developments and will provide updates on the clinical progress of chemokine-based therapeutics. We hope that this will be a forward looking conference with opportunities for in depth analysis of where our field will be heading in the future.

Importantly, whilst the science is key to the success of the conference, we will be holding the meeting in Il Ciocco, Italy. This is a beautiful site and the promise of quality red wine and Italian hospitality can only help to make this a successful meeting.

We look forward to seeing you in Il Ciocco in May 2010.

Gerry Graham and Antal Rot


SUNDAY
4:00 pm - 9:00 pmArrival and Check-in (Check-in Desk Closed 6:00 pm - 7:45 pm)
6:00 pmDinner
7:30 pm - 7:40 pmWelcome / Introductory Comments by GRC Site Staff
7:40 pm - 8:00 pm Welcome / Introductory Comments by Conference Chair, Gerry Graham
8:00 pm - 9:30 pmKeynote Talk
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm Alberto Mantovani (University of Milan)
9:00 pm - 9:20 pm Discussion
MONDAY
7:30 am - 8:30 amBreakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pmChemokines and disease (1)
9:00 am - 9:15 amDiscussion Leader: Phil Murphy (National Institutes of Health)
"Teasing Disease from Chemokinese"
9:15 am - 9:35 amEleanor Fish (University of Toronto)
"From CCR5 to cMet: targeting poxvirus infection for inhibition"
9:35 am - 9:45 am Discussion
9:45 am - 10:05 amSam Hwang (Medical College of Wisconsin)
"Murine models of chemokine receptor-dependent tumorigenesis"
10:05 am - 10:15 am Discussion
10:15 am - 10:45 am Coffee Break / Group Photo
10:45 am - 11:05 amSunhil Ahuja (University of Texas)
"The 'omics' of CCR5 and its ligands: impact on gene regulation and HIV-AIDS pathogenesis"
11:05 am - 11:15 am Discussion
11:15 am - 11:35 amMauro Texeira (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais)
"Chemokines in the context of dengue infection"
11:35 am - 11:45 am Discussion
11:45 am - 12:05 pmDon Cook (National Institutes of Health)
"Trafficking and function of pulmonary dendritic cells"
12:05 pm - 12:15 pm Discussion
12:15 pm - 12:25 pmJi Liang Gao (National Institutes of Health)
"Ocular degeneration in FPR deficient mice"
12:25 pm - 12:30 pm Discussion
12:30 pmLunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pmFree Time
4:00 pm - 5:30 pmPoster Session
5:30 pm - 7:30 pmChemokines, stem cells and Development
5:35 pm - 5:45 pm Discussion Leader: Albert Zlotnik (University of California)
"eccentricities of the chemokine family revealed by microarray analyses"
5:45 pm - 6:05 pmReina Mebius (VUMC)
"Chemokines involved in lymphoid organ development"
6:05 pm - 6:10 pm Discussion
6:10 pm - 6:30 pmErez Raz (University of Munich)
"Control of germ cell migration by CXCL12, CXCR4 and CXCR7"
6:30 pm - 6:35 pm Discussion
6:35 pm - 6:55 pmIzzy Charo (University of California)
"CCR2 control of haemopoietic stem cell movement"
6:55 pm - 7:00 pm Discussion
7:00 pm - 7:10 pmSara Rankine (Imperial College)
"Chemokines and in vivo trafficking of progenitor cells"
7:10 pm - 7:15 pm Discussion
7:15 pm - 7:30 pm Short Talk: TBA
8:00 pmDinner
TUESDAY
7:30 am - 8:30 amBreakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pmChemokines and Disease (2)
9:00 am - 9:15 am Discussion Leader: Barrett Rollins (Harvard Medical School)
"Future horizons for chemokines in disease"
9:15 am - 9:35 amFran Balkwill (The London School of Medicine & Dentistry)
"Chemokines as targets in Epithelial tumours"
9:35 am - 9:45 am Discussion
9:45 am - 10:05 amRichard Ransohoff (The Cleveland Clinical Foundation)
"Chemokine receptors distinguish 'inflammatory' from 'resident' microglia"
10:05 am - 10:15 am Discussion
10:15 am - 10:45 am Coffee Break
10:45 am - 11:05 amSergio Lira (Mount Sinai School of Medicine)
"Chemokine receptors and cancer"
11:05 am - 11:15 am Discussion
11:15 am - 11:35 amAntonella Viola (University of Milan)
"Improving cancer immunotherapy by preventing chemokine nitration"
11:35 am - 11:45 am Discussion
11:45 am - 12:05 pmBernard Homey (Universitatsklinikum Dusseldorf)
"Chemokines and the tumor microenvironment"
12:05 pm - 12:15 pm Discussion
12:15 pm - 12:30 pm Short Talk: TBA
12:30 pmLunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pmFree Time
4:00 pm - 5:30 pmPoster Session
5:30 pm - 7:30 pmChemokines in secondary lymphoid function
5:30 pm - 5:45 pm Discussion Leader: Graham Anderson (Universty of Birmingham)
5:45 pm - 6:05 pm Rheinhold Forster (Hannover Medical School)
6:05 pm - 6:10 pm Discussion
6:10 pm - 6:30 pmBill Agace (Lund University)
"Intestinal epithelial chemokines and gut homeostasis"
6:30 pm - 6:35 pm Discussion
6:35 pm - 6:55 pmDavid Jackson (The Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Univ of Oxford)
"The regulation of leukocyte entry into the lymphatic system"
6:55 pm - 7:00 pm Discussion
7:00 pm - 7:10 pmYousuke Takahama (The University of Tokushima)
"XCL1 regulates medullary accumulation of thymic dendritic cells and thymic development of regulatory T cells"
7:10 pm - 7:15 pm Discussion
7:15 pm - 7:30 pm Short Talk: TBA
8:00 pmDinner
WEDNESDAY
7:30 am - 8:30 amBreakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pmChemokines and leukocyte movement
9:00 am - 9:15 am Discussion Leader: Amanda Proudfoot (Merck Serono Geneva Research Centre)
"Proteoglycans and leukocyte recruitment"
9:15 am - 9:35 amRonen Alon (Weizmann Institute of Science)
"Go and stop signals to lymphocyte LFA-1"
9:35 am - 9:45 am Discussion
9:45 am - 10:05 am Andy Luster (Massachusetts General Hospital)
10:05 am - 10:15 am Discussion
10:15 am - 10:30 am Coffee Break
10:45 am - 11:05 am 'Dee' Gunn (Duke University)
"CCR2- and CCR7-dependent dendritic cell subtypes differentially regulate T cell immune responses"
11:05 am - 11:15 am Discussion
11:15 am - 11:35 amCharles MacKay (Garvan Institute)
"GPR43, a novel chemoattractant receptor involved in the regulation of inflammatory responses"
11:35 am - 11:45 am Discussion
11:45 am - 12:05 pmChristian Weber (Aachen University)
"A miRNA-mediated mechanism for functional CXCL12 induction"
12:05 pm - 12:15 pm Discussion
12:15 pm - 12:30 pm Short Talk: TBA
12:30 pmLunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pmFree Time
4:00 pm - 5:30 pmPoster Session
5:30 pm - 7:30 pmATYPICAL CHEMOKINE RECEPTORS
5:30 pm - 5:45 pm Discussion Leader: Antal Rot (University of Birmingham)
"atypical chemokine receptors"
5:45 pm - 6:05 pmCraig Gerard (Harvard Medical School)
"G protein independent signaling by 7TMS receptors: CXCR7 and C5L2"
6:05 pm - 6:10 pm Discussion
6:10 pm - 6:30 pmRob Nibbs (University of Glasgow)
"Chemokine scavenging by innate-like B cells"
6:30 pm - 6:35 pm Discussion
6:35 pm - 6:55 pmMassimo Locatti (University of Milan)
"Regulation of in vivo inflammatory responses by D6"
6:55 pm - 7:00 pm Discussion
7:00 pm - 7:10 pmMarcus Thelen (Institute for Research in Biomedicine)
"The yin yang of CVXCR7/RDC1 functions"
7:10 pm - 7:15 pm Discussion
7:15 pm - 7:30 pm Short Talk: TBA
7:30 pm - 8:00 pmBusiness Meeting
(Nominations for the next Vice Chair; Fill out Conference Evaluation Forms; Discuss future Site & Scheduling preferences; Election of the next Vice Chair)
8:00 pmDinner
THURSDAY
7:30 am - 8:30 amBreakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pmCHEMOKINE/CHEMOKINE RECEPTOR STRUCTURE STUDIES
9:00 am - 9:15 am Discussion Leader: Tracy Handel (University of California Berkeley)
"The future for receptor structural analyses"
9:15 am - 9:35 amChris Overall (University of British Columbia)
"Protease control of chemokine function"
9:35 am - 9:45 am Discussion
9:45 am - 10:05 amPaul Proost (Rega Institute, Leuven)
"Citrullination of chemokines as a regulatory mechanism for biological activity"
10:05 am - 10:15 am Discussion
10:15 am - 10:45 am Coffee Break
10:45 am - 11:05 amBrian Volkman (Medical College of Wisconsin)
"Structure-based inhibition of CXCL12 activity"
11:05 am - 11:15 am Discussion
11:15 am - 11:35 amMarc Parmentier (Universite Libre de Bruxelles)
"Studies into chemokine receptor dimerisation"
11:35 am - 11:45 am Discussion
11:45 am - 12:05 pmAnne Richmond (Vanderbilt University School of Medicine)
"Chemokine Receptors Grasp for LASP-a key player in the Chemosynapse"
12:05 pm - 12:15 pm Discussion
12:15 pm - 12:30 pm Short Talk: TBA
12:30 pmLunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pmFree Time
4:00 pm - 5:30 pmPoster Session
5:30 pm - 7:30 pmCHEMOKINE THERAPEUTICS
5:30 pm - 5:45 pm Discussion Leader: Tom Schall (Chemocentryx)
"The future for chemokine drug discovery"
5:45 pm - 6:05 pmMatt Walters (Chemocentryx)
"CCR9 targeting in inflammatory bowel disease"
6:05 pm - 6:10 pm Discussion
6:10 pm - 6:30 pmAndreas Kungl (Protaffin Biotechnologie AG)
"Chemokine/Proteoglycan interactions as a therapeutic target"
6:30 pm - 6:35 pm Discussion
6:35 pm - 6:55 pmKevin Bacon (Axikin Pharmaceuticals)
"Targeting CCR3 in Macular Degeneration"
6:55 pm - 7:00 pm Discussion
7:00 pm - 7:10 pmNicolas Fischer (NovImmune)
"Antibody targeting of CXCR3"
7:10 pm - 7:15 pm Discussion
7:15 pm - 7:25 pmSimon Fricker (Genzyme)
"Plerixafor: a success story for chemokine receptor drug discovery"
7:25 pm - 7:30 pm Discussion
8:00 pmDinner
FRIDAY
7:30 am - 8:30 amBreakfast
9:00 amDepart

Last Updated: February 4, 2010