Progress 04/15/08 to 04/14/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: This award partially supported the Fifth International Conference on Relaxin and Related Peptides by providing 20 competitive awards for trainees who submitted meritorious abstracts. These new investigators presented their research orally in the relevant scientific sessions and also had opportunities to interact informally with established investigators. The Relaxin 2008 scientific program had fifteen oral sessions and three poster sessions over five days and provided comprehensive coverage of the recent findings in both basic and applied research on relaxin and related peptides. Thus, there was free exchange of data and ideas and the promotion of collaborative research studies. The knowledge gained will be disseminated further in the form of a high quality book of proceedings published in April 2009 by the Annals of the New York Academy of Science, volume 1160 entitled "Relaxin and Related Peptides". This book will have a world-wide distribution. PARTICIPANTS: Not relevant to this project. TARGET AUDIENCES: Not relevant to this project. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
This grant had five goals, each has been met and is summarized as follows: a.The fifth international conference entitled "Relaxin and Related Peptides" was held on the island of Maui, USA on May 18-23, 2008 at the Sheraton Maui Resort. There were 106 registered participants from 14 different countries. This grant provided stipends of $250 each for 20 new investigators to assist them with their attendance and participation at this conference. These awardees were selected by an international committee based upon the quality of their abstracts submitted for the conference. Their names and affiliations are: Gabrielle Callander, Howard Florey Institute, University of Melbourne, Australia Joseph Chen, Rutgers University, USA Dan Debrah, University of Pittsburgh, USA Amy-Lynn Frankshun, Rutgers University, USA Michelle Halls, Monash University, Australia Linda Haugaard-Jonsson, University of Kalmar, Sweden Andras Kern, University of Hawaii, USA Zhen Li, Baylor College of Medicine, USA Sheri Ma, Howard Florey Institute, University of Melbourne, Australia Priya Maseelall, New Jersey Medical School, USA Barbara McGowan, Imperial College, London UK Jonathan McGuane, University of Florida, USA Sara Morelli, New Jersey Medical School, USA Fazel Shabanpoor, Howard Florey Institute, University of Melbourne, Australia Sudhir Singh, University of Nebraska, USA Craig Smith, Howard Florey Institute, University of Melbourne, Australia Yu May Soh, University of Melbourne, Australia Emma van der Westhuizen, Monash University, Australia Lenka Vodstrcil, University of Melbourne, Australia Su Ee Wong, Howard Florey Institute, University of Melbourne, Australia b. The quality of presentations and discussions at this conference was outstanding and provided a very positive overview of this dynamic field. In addition, an evening event entitled "meet the professors" was held for the new investigators along with most of the senior scientists.This allowed free and informal interchange to take place. c. Approximately two-thirds of the scientists attending this meeting had PhD degrees with involvement in laboratory-based research. The rest were clinical scientists or representatives of commercial companies with interests in the clinical use of relaxin and relaxin-like peptides. d. The Relaxin 2008 scientific program provided comprehensive coverage of the recent findings on the basic and applied aspects of relaxin and related peptides research. In the fifteen oral and three poster sessions held over five days the structure and function of the relaxin and relaxin-like peptides, the relaxin family receptors and their signaling modalities were discussed. These were very basic sessions with state-of-the-art lectures, as well as more clinically related sessions on the role of relaxin and relaxin-like peptides in cancer and an overview of the current clinical trials. e. The Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences has published the proceedings as volume 1160. This is a high quality publication with wide appeal and was published in April 2009 by Blackwell Publishing. ISSN: 0077-8923.
Publications
- A proceedings volume as a result of this conference was published in April 2009: "Relaxin and Related Peptides" Eds, Bryant-Greenwood GD, Bagnell CA and Bathgate RAD. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences volume 1160, Blackwell Publishing Company Inc. ISSN:0077-8923 (print) ISSN: 1749-6632 (online)
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