Islet and Beta Cell Development and Transplantation

joint with Islet and Beta Cell Biology

Organizer(s): Chris Wright, Helena Edlund, David M. Harlan and Ray MacDonald

Supported by the Director's Fund

Summary of Meeting:

This meeting presents an integrated program on pancreatic islet developmental biology, islet transplantation, and immunity. It is designed to interdigitate with and to augment the companion parallel conference “Islet and Beta-Cell Biology”. The meeting will encompass pioneering science in several disciplines, including development, regeneration, stem cells, transcription factors, transplantation, cell biology, gene regulation, immunity, and diabetes. Islet transplantation as an emergent therapy for diabetes is severely hampered by an insufficient islet supply, gradually decreasing islet function post-transplantation, and by toxic immuno-suppression. Understanding the rules that guide pancreas development in vivo will promote methods to generate new islets from adult or embryonic stem cells, and yet our knowledge remains inadequate as it pertains to the mechanisms controlling normal islet development and function, or of the maintenance of the islet cell differentiated state, survival, and physiological function after transplantation. Similarly, the means elude us to safely, effectively, and reliably prevent recurrent immune attack on the transplanted islets. The meeting program focuses on these challenges by covering the most recent progress in these rapidly moving fields and discussing strategies to overcome major obstacles. The meeting builds upon the extremely strong foundation laid by the 2006 Keystone meeting on “Pancreatic Islets”, which very effectively brought together the fields of islet transplantation and basic pancreatic development. A most important aspect of the meeting will be the instructions given to the speakers to identify specific caveats and problems with the current state of research, to define short and long term goals for the field and, moreover, to orient their presentation in a manner that maximizes accessibility to attendees from the other research areas.

Scholarship Deadline: December 6 2007

Discounted Abstract Deadline: December 6 2007

Abstract Deadline: January 9 2008

Discounted Registration Deadline: February 6 2008

We gratefully acknowledge additional support for this conference from:

We gratefully acknowledge the generous grant for this conference provided by:

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Grant No. 5R13DK076500-02

We appreciate the organizations that provide Keystone Symposia with additional support, such as marketing and advertising:

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Special thanks to the following for their support of Keystone Symposia initiatives to increase participation at this meeting by scientists from underrepresented backgrounds:

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