Friday, November 21, 2008
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM Farkas Auditorium
New York University School of Medicine,
540 First Ave., New York, NY

The 2008 Skirball Symposium is open to the public, with no registration fee.
Feel free to spread the word!

While it has been recognized for more than a century that the generation of an inflammatory response is critical for controlling invading pathogens, recent studies have shown that defective regulation of various branches of the immune system contributes not only to autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, type I diabetes, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, lupus, and Crohn's disease, but also to other diseases of great public health relevance, such as asthma and several whose connection to the immune system and inflammation is only now being appreciated. Most prominent among these are atherosclerotic disease, type II diabetes, various cancers, and possibly Alzheimer's disease. In addition, strong immune responses to some viruses, such as SARS, influenza, RSV, and the hepatitis viruses can inflict more damage than the viruses themselves. The 2008 Skirball Symposium "Inflammation and Host Defense" will explore the latest understanding of how the immune system is regulated during health, the mechanisms whereby the immune system is aberrantly activated in disease, and how knowledge of these mechanisms is being exploited for the discovery of new classes of drugs for common diseases.

Preliminary Program

Speakers

Directions

The 2008 Skirball Institute Tenth Annual Symposium is organized by Dan Littman and Ed Skolnik.

Direct all inquiries to Laura Rivera.