2024 Chemotactic Cytokines Gordon Research Conference and Gordon Research Seminar - PROJECT SUMMARY The chemokine system consists of structurally related protein chemoattractants, their cognate G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), and a family of atypical receptors (ACKRs), which are structurally related but do not couple to G-proteins. It is an unusually diverse network involved in almost every physiological process of jawed vertebrates. The complexity of the chemokine-GPCR-ACKR network requires unique tools, approaches and techniques. A prominent feature of the chemokine system is to guide cell migration, primarily of immune cells, and position these cells in specific niches both in homeostatic conditions as well as in pathologies such as infection, inflammation, and cancer. The 2024 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Chemotactic Cytokines: “Navigating Cells into Tissue Niches and Controlling their Fate and Functions in Health and Pathologies” is an internationally renowned meeting dedicated to the mechanisms and functions of the chemokine system. This will be the 15th edition of the Chemokine GRC. As in previous meetings, the Chemotactic Cytokine GRC 2024 will attract scientists from diverse cell biology, biochemistry and biomedical disciplines to discuss their latest published and unpublished results. The proposed program calls on outstanding specialists that will present new findings and concepts with potential translational perspectives. New focus will be given to chemokine-GPCR interactions mediating tumor specific immunity and immunotherapy, neuroinflammation, as well as neuronal development. New developments of chemokine-GPCR related drugs and treatment strategies will also be discussed. The GRC will, as in the recent five editions, be accompanied by a satellite Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Chemotactic Cytokines. The GRS Emerging perspectives in chemokine network interactions and functions is particularly designed for young scientists, graduate students and early postdocs. These next generation scientists will present their work and receive feedback on their research projects from their peers and from a select panel of senior internationally renowned field experts who will attend both the GRS and the GRC meetings. The GRS will cover both the major themes of the GRC as well as several molecular aspects of structural biology of chemokines and their receptors not discussed in the main GRC and will therefore attract additional participants. Importantly, this GRS forum will also promote networking within the field of chemokine research of the next generation of chemokine and GPCR experts. NIH funding is requested to provide partial support for registration of the participants to both meetings. We anticipate that the main speaker presentations including the keynote lectures, the scientific discussions during the plenary sessions and the parallel, poster sessions, and the informal interactions between the participants during meals and leisure activities will jointly contribute to advancing our understanding of chemokine involvement in health and disease. The conference will also foster the development of new collaborative projects and approaches to treat human pathologies, including inflammatory, autoimmune, and infectious diseases, and improve immune based therapies for malignancies.
