Targeting the Mechanisms and Regulation of Transporters for Advancing Health Worldwide

Multi-Drug efflux systems export a wide a variety of substrates from cells and consequently are capable of conferring resistance to a wide range of chemotherapeutic agents. Multidrug resistance caused by active drug efflux is one of the major clinical impediments in anti-cancer chemotherapy and treatment of infectious diseases. Multidrug exporters are ubiquitously expressed in prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms where they regulate absorption, distribution and excretion of xenobiotics, and protect sanctuary tissues by regulating the drug permeability of the blood-brain, -placenta and –testis barriers. In addition to regulating pharmacokinetics, transporters are also major players in dictating tissues' response to drugs, from pharmacological efficacy to toxicity. The recent threat of widespread drug-resistant bacteria raises the prospect of a world without effective new antimicrobials, where patients are left vulnerable to previously treatable infectious diseases, and where organ transplants are impossible. A more complete understanding of multidrug efflux systems, from their physiological and biochemical functions, to their localization, expression, and regulation is of paramount important for the design of more targeted and highly effective treatments with improved patient outcomes.

This conference will highlight recent developments in transporter biology including the identification of drug binding sites, elucidation of structural dynamics, determination of molecular mechanisms of substrate-transporter interactions, and the pharmacological targeting of transporters. As our understanding of transporter actions advances, there is greater potential for the development of more specific and potent drugs that inhibit, modulate or evade the multifaceted efflux systems, as well as capitalize on nanomedicines and novel drug delivery strategies. Further emphasis will be on the regulation of efflux systems mediated by local and global regulators, and the multilayered control to optimize gene expression in response to specific environmental cues.

Scientific Sessions:

• Efflux Pumps in the Balance Between Pharmacology and Toxicity
• Drug-Binding Sites and Drug Translocation Pathways in Multi-Drug Efflux Pumps
• Efflux Pumps in Cell Signaling in Health and Disease
• Establishing Tissue Barriers Using Efflux Transport
• Multi-Drug Efflux Systems in Drug Resistant Lung Infections and Cystic Fibrosis
• Developing Therapeutics to Combat Multi-Drug Transporters
• Genomics and Pharmacogenomics of Drug Resistance Across Diseases
• Innovative Biochemical and Biophysical Methods to Elucidate Structure-Function Relationships
• Therapeutic Targeting of Multi-Drug Transporters in Human Disease

This GRC will be held in conjunction with a Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) for young scientists.

Note: 20% of talks will be selected from poster abstracts