Development, Homeostasis and Repair of Secretory Organs: Their Microenvironments and the Signals That Control Them

This meeting focuses on the formation, maintenance, function and repair of secretory organs. Talks will cover a range of model systems from invertebrate secretory glands to the professional secretory organs of higher animals, including the pancreas, gut, lungs, lacrimal, mammary, and salivary glands. Several exciting sessions are planned that will cover design principles underlying salivary gland and secretory organ development, recent advances in secretory cell biology, the role of mucins and other secretory cargo in epithelial organs, the machinery and circuitry regulating secretion, the role of secretion in host-microbe interactions, secretory organ diseases, and, finally, recent advances in the regeneration and repair of secretory organs. One session is dedicated to recent technological advances in imaging, gene editing and genome-wide approaches to understanding secretory biology. The meeting provides a unique setting bringing together basic scientists and clinicians from around the world working on the salivary gland and other exocrine organs. The setting and schedule of the meeting is designed to provide ample time to develop critical liaisons between experienced and new researches, between clinicians and basic scientists, and among individuals addressing a range of biological questions with a variety of approaches.