Cardiac Disease: Development, Regeneration and Repair

Keystone Symposia, Silverthorne CO

Investigators

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is to request support for a Keystone Symposia meeting entitled "Cardiac Disease: Development, Regeneration and Repair", organized by Michael D. Schneider and Nadia A. Rosenthal, which will be held in Asheville, North Carolina from March 15 - 20, 2009. Cardiac muscle death, without numerically equivalent myocyte creation, poses a formidable and inexorable challenge in both acute and chronic forms of heart disease. A regenerative medicine approach to rescue cardiac muscle cell number or instigate heart repair in other ways has moved from the esoteric fringe to the mainstream of both fundamental and patient-based cardiovascular research. However, notwithstanding the encouraging results from phase I and even phase II trials in this realm, the scientific foundations of cardiac repair largely remain to be proven on a basis that is more than empirical. By virtue of its orientation not merely to translation, but at least equally to the enabling sciences within stem cell biology, cardiovascular development, and genetics, this Keystone Symposia meeting addresses a critical unmet need in a high-impact field of current and foreseeable explosive growth.