Released on: January 7, 2008, 10:44 am

Press Release Author: GTCBIO

Industry: Pharmaceuticals

Press Release Summary: Eicke Latz, Assistant Professor in Medicine of the Division
of Infectious Diseases and Immunology at University of Massachusetts Medical School
will give a presentation entitled "Mechanisms of Crystal Recognition by
Inflammasomes" at GTCbio's 6th Cytokines and Inflammation (January 28-29, 2008,
Orlando, Florida.)

Press Release Body: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 26, 2007


University of Massachusetts to Present at GTCbio's 6th Cytokines and Inflammation
(January 28-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida

Eicke Latz, Assistant Professor in Medicine of the Division of Infectious Diseases
and Immunology at University of Massachusetts Medical School will give a
presentation entitled "Mechanisms of Crystal Recognition by Inflammasomes" at
GTCbio's 6th Cytokines and Inflammation (January 28-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida.)

The major task of the immune system is to recognize and respond to conditions that
are of danger to the body, such as infections, cancer and traumatic tissue damage.
Immune cells express several classes of germline-encoded signaling receptor
molecules that can recognize and signal the presence of foreign material (from
viruses and bacteria in case of an infection) and altered self molecules that appear
under certain disease conditions.
Toll-like receptors are membrane bound immune receptors that recognize a broad range
of molecular signatures in the extracellular space and in endo-lysosomal
compartments. In the cytoplasm a family of NOD-like receptors (NLR) are expressed
that recognize microbial material and can sense altered self molecules that appear
under certain disease states. It has recently been shown that crystallization of
normally soluble molecules can be interpreted as a danger signal and lead to
activation of immune cells via NLRs. For example monosodium urate crystals, which
appear in the clinical syndrome known as gout, are potent activators of NLRs. The
NLR family members are thought to assemble into multimeric receptor complexes,
termed inflammasomes, which control the active state of the inflammatory caspase-1.
Active caspase-1 is able to cleave the proforms of the cytokines IL-1b, IL-18 and
IL-33 into the active mature cytokines. Thus, inflammasomes are important receptor
complexes which control the processing of highly inflammatory cytokines and may play
a key role in the development of auto-inflammatory and chronic inflammatory
diseases.

The conference also features presentations from other leading organizations
including Alba Therapeutics, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Biogen-Idec, ChemoCentryx,
Children\'s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Cleveland Clinic, FDA, Genentech, Genomics
Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, Hôpital Edouard Herriot, McGill
University, MedImmune, Merck, Merck-Serono, NIH, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Roche Palo
Alto, Schering Plough, St. Judes Children's Research Hospital, University of
Glasgow, and University Medical Center Utrecht. The full agenda is available online
at www.gtcbio.com.

GTCbio's 6th Cytokines and Inflammation conference will take place on January 28-29,
2008 at the Orlando Metropolitan Resort in Orlando, Florida and will cover Cytokines
Signaling and Regulation, Inflammation and Cancer, Technological Developments in
Cytokines Biology, Chemokines, and Targeting of Cytokine Receptors

For more information including a detailed agenda, exhibitor opportunities and
registration information visit http://gtcbio.com/userAgenda.aspx?id=115



ABOUT GTCbio

GTCbio organizes conferences specifically for the biomedical and biopharmaceutical
industries. Our goal is to facilitate the exchange of biopharmaceutical and
biomedical intelligence between industry leaders, academic and government
organizations, and the financial community.

GTCbio is a subsidiary of Global Technology Community, LLC, a privately held company
founded in 2002.

Contact: GTCBIO (626) 256-6405, (626) 256-6460 fax, raniah@gtcbio.com


Web Site: http://

Contact Details: Contact: GTCBIO (626) 256-6405, (626) 256-6460 fax,
raniah@gtcbio.com