Building and Rebuilding the Lung

Lung diseases present a huge global health burden with over 600 million people worldwide affected by diseases such as COPD and pulmonary fibrosis. Furthermore, acute lung injury is a common response to infection with many emerging pathogens. Despite the huge health burden, there are relatively few, if any therapeutic agents that improve survival for these diseases. Because injury and repair often utilize similar pathways, understanding the common biological principles will facilitate developing innovative treatments for lung disease. This conference will emphasize mechanisms in lung development, injury and repair and focus on new advances in these fields such as microRNA, systems biology, and bioengineering. By bringing together a diverse and outstanding group of investigators together to present the most up-to-date advances in these related fields, we hope to encourage creative and multidisciplinary approaches that will ultimately facilitate development of innovative and effective therapies.