The TGF-β Superfamily Conference: Signaling in Development and Disease

This FASEB Science Research Conference (SRC) the 13th in a series, will explore the latest developments in TGFβ superfamily signaling, from the molecular complexities of signal transduction to biological responses during development, adult tissue homeostasis, and ageing in health and disease settings.

The fundamental roles and complexities of TGFβ superfamily signaling in physiology and pathophysiology will appeal to a diverse group of cell biologists, biochemists, developmental and cancer biologists, physiologists, biophysicists, computational, structural, and translational biologists. 

The conference actively fosters interactions with established leaders of the field with new and early-career researchers, providing numerous opportunities for both formal and informal interactions and idea exchanges.

The meeting’s main goals are to: drive scientific innovation via a systems-level breadth of experimental analysis; foster collaborations, intellectual exchange, and interdisciplinary approaches; and help build the next cohort of TGFβ scientists. 

Cutting-edge and forward-looking presentations, by researchers from around the globe, will be directed towards a fundamental understanding of the functions and mechanisms of TGFβ family signaling by addressing: 1) How these factors mediate context-specific and temporally specific signals to orchestrate complex developmental and physiological processes; 2) How aberrations in this signaling pathway lead to developmental abnormalities and human disease pathologies; 3) How this knowledge may be applied in the clinic.

The conference will cover complexities of signaling from structural dissection of molecular interactions to systems biology analyses of signaling networks and the biological consequences of signaling modulation in health, aging, and disease. 

Topics include: 

• Developmental dynamics, from stem cell regulation and cell specification to tissue patterning 
• Regulation of the immune, cardiovascular, neuronal, bone, and cartilage systems during formation, repair and homeostasis, and pathogenesis of disease 
• Aberrant signaling modulation during cancer development and metastasis, developmental disorders, and fibrosis 
• Development of therapeutic modulators and their clinical implementation

The conference covers nine sessions with two poster sessions and two poster flash sessions, a “Meet the Expert” session, and career development workshops.