The program reflects the current phase of intense and worldwide lymphatic research with rapid advances. The program contains sessions about lymphangiogenesis, adipogenesis, lymphatic immunology and vascular biology, molecular transport and mechanotransduction as the basis for understanding of tissue physiology and pathology, immunology, tumor biology, tissue transport. The lymphatics in important human diseases associated with obesity, immune suppression, congenital and secondary lymph and tissue edema, lymphatic inflammation, tumors and metastasis, chemo-attraction between tumor cells and lymphatic endothelium will be discussed. The aim is design of new interventions against disorders involving the lymphatic system. This topic will be thoroughly discussed with special emphasis on future directions in therapeutic lymph angiogenesis and identification of new opportunities in lymphatic tissue engineering.

A highly interdisciplinary group of speakers will cover frontiers in biochemical and biophysical signaling mechanisms of lymphangiogenesis, genetics, lymphatic endothelium receptors, cytoskeletal structures and signaling mechanisms, lymphatic smooth muscle molecular biology and biophysics, lymphoid tissue angiogenesis and immunology, interaction between adipose tissue and lymphatics, inflammation in lymphatics, molecular biology and biomechanics of primary and secondary lymphatic valve systems. A rich assortment of fundamental discoveries about lymphatic genetics, proteomics and lipidomics, growth, and transport studies will be presented.

Young investigators are especially encouraged to attend the conference. Short frontier presentations at the end of each morning session will be derived from the abstract submissions and announced in the final program. In the tradition of the Gordon Research Conferences the meeting schedule and ambience is designed to maximize informal interactions between all investigators and development of new research directions.

International Advisory Committee:

• Marc Achen (Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Melbourne, Australia)
• David Bates (University of Bristol, United Kingdom)
• Lena Claesson-Welsh (Uppsala University, Sweden)
• David Jackson (John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom)
• Gou Young Koh (Biomedical Center, Daejeon, Korea)
• Donald McDonald (University fo California San Francisco, San Francisco)
• Peter Mortimer (University of London, United Kingdom)
• Guillermo Oliver (St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis)
• Tatiana Petrova (University of Helsinki, Finland)
• Stanley Rockson (Stanford University, Palo Alto)
• Michaela Skobe (Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York)
• Melody Swartz (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland
• Judith Varner (University of California San Diego, La Jolla)
• David Zawieja (Texas A&M University, College Station)