ASMB/Vanderbilt Workshop on Basement Membranes

Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

The 2019 ASMB/Vanderbilt Workshop on Basement Membranes will be held from July 10-12 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN. The workshop, which is officially sponsored by the American Society for Matrix Biology, will be jointly chaired by Dr. Roy Zent of Vanderbilt and Dr. Jeffrey Miner from Washington University in St. Louis. The 2019 Workshop will be a follow up to the highly successful 2017 Workshop and will serve as the only international forum for the dissemination of new ideas and information about the structure and biological functions of basement membranes (BMs). The Workshop will be used to communicate and disseminate new data and concepts concerning known and novel BM components. This will include molecular and structural biology; biological activities as defined both in vitro and in vivo; mechanisms of assembly and turnover; cellular and developmental functions; cellular mechanisms of recognition and adhesion and their downstream effects; and roles in stem cell niche biology. Other topics that will be covered concern potential clinical applications, including impact on wound healing and autoimmune diseases; gene and other therapies for inherited BM diseases (epidermolysis bullosa, muscular dystrophies, Alport syndrome); inhibition of tumor invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis; and tissue engineering and regeneration within complex BM-organized three- dimensional systems. The workshop will increase interactions and collaborations among basic research groups, clinical research groups, and pharmaceutical or biotechnology firms interested in BMs or other extracellular matrix constituents, their receptors, or related signaling pathways. It should foster new collaborative ventures between investigators working in distinct organ model systems and in a variety of model organisms, using the BM as the unifying theme that is ideally suited to transcend traditional intellectual barriers between defined fields.