Signal Dynamics and Signal Integration in Development and Disease

Keystone Symposia, Silverthorne CO

Investigators

Abstract

ABSTRACT Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled Signal Dynamics and Signal Integration in Development and Disease, organized by Drs. Nicolas Tapon, Liliana Attisano and Raphael Kopan. The conference will be held in Keystone, Colorado from January 27-31, 2019. The discovery and study of the major developmental signaling pathways (Notch, Hh, Wnt, RTK) has illuminated how patterning and growth are controlled in metazoans. These pathways are reiteratively used during development and adult life, acting to maintain stem cells and direct tissue repair and regeneration. When they are disrupted, cancer develops. Our program embraces recent progress in quantitative biology, mathematical modelling, single cell analysis and intravital imaging. It also presents a major opportunity to bring together knowledge from developmental systems with adult homeostasis, regeneration and cancer, as well as to elucidate how different developmental signals are integrated to influence cellular decision-making processes. By bringing together cell/developmental biologists with stem cell, regeneration and cancer specialists, with a strong emphasis on multidisciplinary approaches that incorporate systems biology, mathematics and physics into the study of living systems, we will contribute to accelerating the rate of discovery. Pairing the meeting with the Keystone conference on Cellular Plasticity: Reprogramming, Regeneration, and Metaplasia, will enhance the conferences? impact and explore in depth the parallels between plasticity/pluripotency in development, regeneration, and disease. This conference aims to 1) explore the commonalities between signaling in development, regeneration, and homeostasis, 2) leverage quantitative, single cell and systems biology to study the dynamics and integration of developmental signaling across scales, and 3) highlight how perturbations in developmental pathways cause diseases such as cancer.