Science Researcher Update: Spotlight on Meetings, Conferences, and Events

This is a unique didactic/hands-on workshop that provides a comprehensive overview of respiratory biology and, in particular, the use of mice as model systems of human lung diseases. The objectives of the workshop include reviews of basic lung biology, structure-function issues surrounding respiratory mechanics, immune responses linked with the pulmonary compartments as well as the lung microenvironment, and the techniques/strategies for reproducible measurements of lung function in mice. Laboratory-based exercises will provide participants with hands-on experience measuring airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR), lung volumes and pressure-volume (PV) curves, lung morphometry, sampling techniques and mouse lung histopathology. In addition, the course will review basic mouse genetics, housing and breeding strategies, and survival surgical techniques. The course faculty is comprised of prominent members of the research community who are supported by a core group of research scientists providing insights into cutting edge technologies and experimental strategies. 

Part of this workshop includes pathology sessions.  If you have any FIXED slides you would like to have analyzed by the workshop pathologist, please bring them with you.  Additionally, if you have any interesting FIXED slides you would like to share with the group, please bring these as well.  IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT BRING FRESH TISSUE TO THE JACKSON LABORATORY!

Participants completing this workshop will have a working knowledge of basic pulmonary biology and the pathophysiology/histopathology accompanying lung diseases. More importantly, participants will gain the needed exposure to laboratory-based techniques for quantifying pulmonary structure, immunobiology, and lung function – all key endpoint metrics needed to utilize mice as model systems of human respiratory diseases.

Synposis: Topics covered in this course include: image enhancement, segmentation, tracking, feature extraction, image classification, machine learning including deep learning, noise analysis and uncertainty prediction, and statistical hypothesis testing. All topics will be covered in theory lectures and computer exercises. Exercises will be done on images from ongoing research projects in the instructors’ labs and will target actual research questions. An important subject in the course will be software design, addressing both the implementation of optimized algorithms and sharable code, and programming in teams.

Student requirements and course structure: The course will admit graduate students and junior postdocs with backgrounds in mathematics, physics, and/or engineering, who are currently conducting research in cellular and developmental biology. Students with no formal training in the quantitative sciences may also be considered if space is available and if initial experience in the practice of computer image analysis in microscopy is documented in the application. We will accept a maximum of 12 students. This size has been proven ideal since the first implementation of the course in 2011, and is also defined by the funds made available through an NIH grant. The course will be free for all admitted students, with the exception of travel expenditure to and from Woods Hole.

The course will contain two theory lectures per day. The rest of the course time will be primarily devoted to computer exercises under the guidance of the four course instructors and two TAs. To broaden the perspectives and encourage discussions, there will also be several evening seminars by invited faculty and by the students themselves.

The software projects will be done in small teams. This course structure is designed to train the students in the practicalities of code sharing and collaborative problem solving, allowing them to tackle complex image analysis problems when they return to their home institutions. At the end of the course, students will be encouraged to take home their own projects and the library code they integrated. The course will use MATLAB as the programming language, one of the most widespread platforms for scientific computing.

Importantly, this is not a course for students who wish to get familiar with MATLAB programming. On the contrary, we expect students to have basic knowledge of MATLAB (or solid expertise in another modular and/or object-oriented programming language), allowing them to start using Matlab on Day 1 for solving image and data analysis problems related to cell and developmental biology. Once the student body is identified, we will publicize tutorial materials for self-study.

The 33rd Annual Echocardiography in Pediatric and Adult Congenital Heart Disease Symposium returns to the Rochester, MN campus of the Mayo Clinic and will highlight the use of echocardiography and other cardiac imaging techniques to recognize, understand, and manage patients with congenital heart disease using a case based format. This four-day symposium is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the anatomy, clinical aspects, imaging, and management of patients with congenital heart disease. The symposium will include case discussions, didactic seminars, anatomic and imaging correlations, discussion of multimodal imaging and live, hands-on scanning seminars to illustrate the impact of cardiac imaging on treatment, diagnosis, and management of patients with congenital heart disease.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

• Describe the anatomy and physiology of common congenital cardiac conditions as well as the surgical/interventional procedures used to treat them
• Interpret 2-D echo/Doppler hemodynamics in the setting of congenital heart disease
• Recognize limitations of echocardiography and other imaging techniques
• Integrate the most up-to-date echocardiographic and multimodality imaging techniques into patient management

INTENDED AUDIENCE:

This course is designed for pediatric and adult cardiologists, surgeons, fellows in training, and cardiac sonographers. The emphasis is on echocardiography. Participants should have a good working knowledge of echocardiography.

The 2-day International Regional ISBS Conference will exchange and share the developing translational knowledgebase of the molecular and genetic link between biological psychiatry and behavior/neurobiology, with the particular focus on stress and stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders. Anyone interested in stress-related human or animal behaviors, neurobehavioral disorders and their mechanisms are welcome to join the Conference.

Over the two days, this exclusive summit will bring together will bring together senior scientists and business leaders from pharma, biotech and academia, using extensive networking sessions to forge meaningful collaborations.The summit will cover the latest updates from the pipelines of small and large drug developers, and feature discussions around the latest trends in precision medicine through case studies from early discovery to development. Topics Include: Immunotherapy / CAR-TCR, Biomarkers /CDx, Novel approaches (Including Antibody Drug Conjugates)

Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) are key to the genomic control of development in animals and plants. To study GRNs requires insights from various research fields, including systems biology, developmental and evolutionary biology, as well as functional genomics, and provides an integrative approach to fundamental research questions in biology. This course introduces the concepts of GRNs, and teaches experimental and computational methods used to study them, through highly interactive lectures, discussions, group projects, and practical tutorials. We will cover a broad range of topics, including transcriptional control systems, the structural organization of hierarchical networks, developmental functions of GRN circuit modules, GRN evolution, and computational modeling using BioTapestry as well as Boolean and quantitative mathematical approaches. Students will learn how to generate GRN models based on data extracted from the literature, and will generate computational models to analyze dynamic circuit behavior. We will present and discuss a broad range of experimental approaches and how they are effectively used for studying gene regulation and developmental GRNs. Examples of experimentally solved developmental GRNs from a variety of organisms, such as flies, sea urchins, frogs, chicken, and mice, will be explored. Students are encouraged to share their research projects in a poster session, and to discuss with course faculty how to apply the approaches taught in the course to their own research questions. The course is intended for advanced graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty.

The Anti-Fibrotic Drug Development Summit is the first meeting to assemble researchers and program leaders from cross-industry to share experiences and insights on how to better directly target the drivers of fibrotic diseases.

 Developed in combination with experts from GSK, BMS, Pfizer and many more this forum aims to better elucidate how the underlying fibrotic biology can be more effectively drugged, to discern which models of fibrosis are the most robust and how biomarkers can be implemented into improved clinical trials designs.

While medicines may save lives, they also have the potential to do great harm. The difference may depend on the integrity of the data generated during drug development, clinical trials, manufacture, and testing. Managing complex pharmaceutical data systems in a global marketplace is challenging and regulatory enforcement agencies around the world have responded by bringing focus to concerns over data integrity.

This one-day course provides clinicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants with state-of-the-art information on diagnosis and management of inflammatory bowel disease with emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach to patient care.  Invited speakers are experts from the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinic, Radiology, and Colorectal Surgery.  The course format offers didactic lectures, panel discussions and Q & A.  Active audience participation is strongly encouraged.

Upon conclusion of this program, participants should be able to:

• Discuss the multidisciplinary management of Crohn’s disease
• Recognize appropriate utility of MR and CT for IBD monitoring
• Contrast the differences in risks, benefits and recovery between endoscopic and surgical management of complications of disease
• Cite advantages of integrating radiologic and pathologic resources into the care of patients with ulcerative colitis
• Discuss the importance of patient centered biomedical discovery

Attendance at this Mayo Clinic course does not indicate nor guarantee competence or proficiency in the performance of any procedures which may be discussed or taught in this course. 

This one-day course provides clinicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants with state-of-the-art information on diagnosis and management of inflammatory bowel disease with emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach to patient care.  Invited speakers are experts from the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinic, Radiology, and Colorectal Surgery.  The course format offers didactic lectures, panel discussions and Q & A.  Active audience participation is strongly encouraged.

Upon conclusion of this program, participants should be able to:

• Discuss the multidisciplinary management of Crohn’s disease
• Recognize appropriate utility of MR and CT for IBD monitoring
• Contrast the differences in risks, benefits and recovery between endoscopic and surgical management of complications of disease
• Cite advantages of integrating radiologic and pathologic resources into the care of patients with ulcerative colitis
• Discuss the importance of patient centered biomedical discovery

Attendance at this Mayo Clinic course does not indicate nor guarantee competence or proficiency in the performance of any procedures which may be discussed or taught in this course.