Development, Malformations and Cancers

Neural crest cells and cranial sensory placodes are of central importance to the development and evolution of vertebrates, and are also of high clinical significance. This conference is designed to facilitate shared insights among attendees and fuel further advances in our understanding of the mechanisms governing the formation, behavior and differentiation of these two cell populations, as well as to catalyze the application of this knowledge to the field of regenerative medicine. The central goals of the conference are to accelerate the exchange of information across different model systems, to promote technological innovations in the field, and to further a genome and proteome scale understanding of the mechanisms that govern the development of neural crest cells and cranial sensory placodes.

Both neural crest cells and cranial placode cells make extensive contributions to embryonic structures, and defects in their development underlie a broad range of congenital disorders. Neural crest cells display stem cell attributes, and neural crest-derived cells persist as stem cells into adulthood; studies of these cells provide broad insights into stem cell biology. Moreover, neural crest cells undergo migratory and invasive behavior driven by core EMT regulatory factors, and understanding how their behavior is regulated provides insights into the related invasive behavior of metastatic tumor cells. Cranial placode cells play important roles in the development of cranial sensory structures; mutations in genes that regulate their development lead to human syndromes with severe sensory deficits and dysregulated cell cycle control in numerous cancers. The conference will bring together a diverse group of scientists in a collegial atmosphere that fosters substantive discussions and promotes collaborative interactions between basic and clinical scientists in this important area of biomedical research.