May 7 - 11, 2010
Baltimore Convention Centre, Maryland
Symposium Title:
Genetic susceptibility to immunodeficiences and auto-immunity
Chair: Dr. André Veillette, Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, Professor, Dept. of Molecular Oncology; McGill Cancer Center, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
Speakers:
"Immune regulation by SAP, a molecule mutated in X-linked lymphoproliferative disease" Dr. André Veillette, Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, Montreal, PQ
Dr. Veillette received his M.D. in 1982 from Laval University. He was a professor at the McGill Cancer Center at McGill University and is currently professor in the Department of Molecular Oncology at the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal. In 1995 he was elected a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He has received the André Dupont Young Investigator Award, the Merck Frosst Prize, and the Marcel-Piché Award. In 2002 he was named Canadian Research Chair in Signalling in the Immune System; in 2007 he received the Léo-Pariseau Prize, a Quebecois prize awarded by the Francophone Association for Knowledge and sponsored by Merck Frosst; in 2008 he was elected member of the Royal Society of Canada; and in 2009 he received the Hardy-Cinader Award from Canadian Society of Immunology and was elected member of Association of American Physicians. Dr. Veillette's research interest is to elucidate the signalling mechanisms regulating immune cells.
"Lymphocyte adhesion: lessons from X-linked lymphoproliferative disease" Dr. Jennifer Cannons, National Human Genome Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
"Immunogenetics of Type 1 diabetes in the BB rat" Dr. Philippe Poussier, Sunnybrook Research Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
Dr. Poussier is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Immunology at the University of Toronto. He earned his MD degree at the University of Paris, France and continued his studies as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto and then at INSERM in Paris. Dr. Poussier's research focuses on the etiopathogenesis of autoimmune type 1 diabetes using the spontaneously diabetic BB rat as a model of the human disease.
"Unraveling complex disease: genetic and immunlogical analysis of Type 1 diabetes" Dr. Jayne Danska, Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
Dr. Jayne Danska is a Senior Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children in the Program in Genetics and Genome Biology, and a Professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine, in the Department of Immunology and Department of Medical Biophysics. After graduating from Kenyon College in Ohio, Dr. Danska completed her Ph.D. in Genetics and Molecular Biology at Cornell University, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. She joined the Hospital for Sick Children in 1991. Dr. Danska’s research is on the genetic and immunological basis of Type 1 Diabetes and on molecular mechanisms of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in animal models and in humans. She is currently the Lead Investigator on a Genome Canada project in Type 1 Diabetes, and co-investigator on two collaborative projects on lymphoblastic leukemia. Dr. Danska has chaired and served on grant panels including the National Cancer Institute of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Diabetes Association, and the National Institutes of Health (USA). Dr. Danska is a recipient of the NCIC Scientist Award, and the Premier’s Research Excellence Award.
" IL-2 and regulatory T cells in autoimmunity"
Dr. Pere Santamaria, Julia McFarlane Diabets Research Centre, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB
Dr. Santamaria is Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, and also Director and Chair of Julia McFarlane Diabetes Research Centre in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He earned M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Barcelona, Spain, in 1983 and 1987, respectively, and completed his medical specialty training in Clinical Immunology in 1987, also in Barcelona. From 1988 – 1992, he pursued postdoctoral research training in the Department of Medicine and Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. He joined the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary in 1992. Dr. Santamaria has been the recipient of several honors and awards, including the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Senior Scholar, Scientist and Senior Scientist awards, the Canadian Diabetes Association Young Investigator award and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Scholar award. Dr. Santamaria’s research focuses on the pathogenesis and immunogenetics of autoimmune type 1 diabetes.
