Immune and Inflammatory Responses in the Central Nervous System
Neuroscience Graduate Student Irah King (left) opened the 2004 Schmitt Symposium by welcoming the speakers and the audience. Irah did a great job all day, as he introduced each speaker and shuttled Symposium participants from discussions to lunch to panels to dinner.
The contribution of inflammation-related processes to neurological diseases has been increasingly recognized in recent years. Studies of primary neuroimmunological diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis as well as neurodegenerative disorders with an inflammatory component, including Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease, have received particular attention in basic research and clinical arenas. Inflammatory aspects of CNS trauma, toxin exposure and psychological disorders are also currently under investigation. Furthermore, the immunological/inflammatory consequence of gene therapy in the CNS is a timely and important issue.
This Symposium addressed the roles of innate and adaptive immunity in response to CNS insults and various disease processes. Specific topics included the immune functions of glial cells, factors controlling blood brain barrier integrity, leukocyte trafficking to the CNS, CNS cytokine/chemokine production, animal models of neuroinflammatory/neuroimmunological diseases and clinical application of basic research findings.
Speakers
Visiting Faculty
- Etty Benveniste, Ph.D., Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy; and Professor in the Departments of Neurobiology and Physiology and Biophysics; University of Alabama-Birmingham: Communication between Immune System and the CNS via Cytokine/Chemokine Networks
- William Hickey, M.D., Chairman of Pathology at Dartmouth Medical School: Initiation of Inflammation in the CNS and Regulation of Blood Brain Barrier Integrity
- Richard Ransohoff, M.D., Professor, Department of Molecular Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, CWRU: Involvement of Chemokines and Their Receptors in Leukocyte Invasion, Differentiation, Activation, Tissue Destruction, and Repair in the CNS
- Joan Goverman, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Immunology at the University of Washington: Mechanisms of Tolerance and Autoimmunity, Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis
URMC Faculty
- Berislav Zlokovic, M.D., Ph.D, Professor and Associate Chair, Neurosurgery; Director, Frank P. Smith Laboratories for Neurosurgical Research and Neuroscience:Intravascular Alzheimer’s amyloid-B Linked to AB Deposition in the Brain
- Benjamin Segal, M.D., Assistant Professor of Neurology and NeuroImmunology: Models of Multiple Sclerosis, Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis, Mediated by CD4+ T Cells Specific for Myelin Peptides