The Gordon Research Conference on Multidrug Efflux in Ventura, VA, March 17-22, 2013

Gordon Research Conferences, East Greenwich RI

Investigators

Abstract

The Gordon Research Conference on Multidrug Efflux that will take place in Ventura, California in March 17-22, 2013 focuses on multi-drug systems in bacteria and man to allow cross-disciplinary interaction. There is very good evidence that efflux transporters contribute to some of the earliest resistance responses in bacteria. Patients have died from antibiotic resistant organisms at some of our most advanced hospital centers in the United States, and it is important to identify approaches to prevent the onset of antibiotic resistance. Furthermore, it is increasingly clear that multidrug transporters are important in human beings, for example in the blood brain barrier, in protecting the brain from toxins but also in preventing therapeutic agents from accessing the brain. This creates a form of "sanctuary drug resistance" that allows the development of brain metastasis in patients with cancer, and allows HIV infection to persist in the CNS, and reduces the efficacy of anti-seizure medication and psychiatric medication. Efflux systems play important roles in pharmacology in determining the rate of drug excretion from the body. Efflux transporters may also confer resistance to cancer cells in patients, and approaches to circumvent this have been studied for many years. At the center of all of these physical systems are efflux pumps. The description of regulation of resistance mechanisms by fundamental physical processes and a role of polyspecific transporters in Alzheimer's disease will be discussed for the first time. Various strategies of pharmacological modulation of function of MDR transporters to improve clinical outcomes will be discussed at large. This powerful combination of topics will facilitate greater understanding and collaboration between these thematic topics. The conference is interdisciplinary in its nature and brings together Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacology disciplines. Traditionally a large number of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows participate in this meeting. Well-known scientists and their post-docs and students from diverse background have been invited. The selection of participants is primarily based on scientific excellence, but to balance gender and equally qualified minorities, people from diverse backgrounds and scientists with disabilities will receive preference. The goal of 2013 Multidrug Efflux Systems GRC is to bring together scientists from diverse fields to interact, learn from each other, identify new approaches