TRP Channels: From Sensory Signaling to Human Disease

The objective of this two-day conference is to provide a forum for scientists working on TRP channels in different model organisms and systems, and using a diversity of approaches, to present and discuss the latest and most exciting developments in the field.

Background and Goals
The discovery of the TRP family of ion channels has revolutionized our understanding of how animals detect a diversity of sensory inputs. They allow us to sense distinct temperatures, tastants, mechanical stimuli, environmental irritants, and in some animals, light and pheromones. As global mediators of sensory signaling, the TRP family is distinct from all other ion channel families. Due to the essential roles of TRP channels in the detection of sensory stimuli, their activities regulate behaviors including aggression and selection of preferred environmental temperatures.

Mutations that disrupt or eliminate TRP channel function underlie many diseases, including autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, which is among the most common monogenic diseases worldwide with a fatal outcome, and the early childhood neurodegenerative disorder, mucolipidosis type IV. Excessive TRP channel activity also causes human disease and appears to underlie certain forms of chronic pain. Consequently, inhibitors of TRP channels are needed for the purposes of controlling acute and chronic pain, asthma, inflammation, hypertension and reducing the severity of cell death following stroke.

Despite the importance of TRP channels in mediating sensory signaling and in human disease, many controversies and challenges remain. These include questions concerning the mechanism through which these channels are activated and regulated and how a single TRP channel integrates multiple types of sensory input.

The objective of this two-day conference is to provide a forum for scientists working on TRP channels in different model organisms and systems, and using a diversity of approaches, to present and discuss the latest and most exciting developments in the field. Another important goal is for scientists to establish new contacts to promote collaborations and cooperation. The convergence of investigators from a variety of fields and with a range of perspectives provides an opportunity to promote exciting discussions and generate new ideas to resolve many of the current challenges in the TRP field. Not least among these challenges, is the development of therapies for treating the diseases that result from mutations in TRP channels.

Speakers
Craig Montell,Johns Hopkins Univ. School of Medicine
Bernd Nilius, Katholieke Universiteit
David Clapham, Harvard Medical School
Md.Shahidul Islam Karolinska Institutet
Ardem Patapoutian, Scripps Research Institute
Andrea Fleig, University of Hawaii
Michael Tymianski,Toronto Western Research Institute
Barbara Ehrlich, Yale School of Medicine
David Julius, University of California, San Francisco
Michael Caterina, Johns Hopkins Univ. School of Medicine
X.Z. Shawn Xu, University of Michigan
Indu S. Ambudkar, NIDCR, National Institutes of Health
René J.M. Bindels, Radboud Univ. Nijmegen Med. Centre
Thomas Gudermann, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet
Baruch Minke, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Andreas Lückhoff,University Hospital, Aachen
Peter Zygmunt, Lund University

Dates of the meeting:
September 26-27 2009

Venue: Nobel Forum,
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm

How to get to the venue:

How to reach Nobel Forum at Karolinska Institutet?

Nobel Forum is located in the Solna campus of Karolinska Institutet:
http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=322&a=2773&l=en

Maps of Karolinska Institutet
http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=322&a=2686&l=en

Visit Stockholm
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Things to see and do in Stockholm
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To receive upcoming announcements mail to:
shaisl@ki.se

Organisers
Organiser: Md. Shahidul Islam

Co-organiser: Craig Montell

Link: http://edit.ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=26446&a=69069&l=en

Content Editor: Md. Shahidul Islam
Last modified by: Carina Bois 2009-02-02