Title of event

Lymphocyte kinetics in health and disease

Overall aims

The major goals of the meeting will be:

• firstly, to discuss the issues related to measuring and modelling lymphocyte turnover in health and disease
• secondly, to seek consensus for approaches to future studies which might investigate the impact of various interventions (such as therapies) on turnover of lymphocytes in humans
• thirdly, to identify and promote further areas for collaborative research between the groups involved in this important area.

Background and rationale

Maintaining appropriate numbers and subpopulations of lymphocytes, lymphocyte homeostasis, is a fundamental requirement for good health. Dysregulation of lymphocyte populations is pivotal to the pathology and progression of a diverse range of pathologies including leukaemia and AIDS. This meeting seeks to bring together, for the first time, scientists involved in studying the in vivo kinetics of human lymphocytes for a workshop to share concepts, discuss methodologies and explore future areas for research. The workshop will be of interest to both theoreticians and experimentalists.

The last ten years have witnessed major advances in our ability to measure human lymphocyte kinetics and thus understand homeostasis. These advances have largely resulted from the introduction of in vivo labelling techniques, using non-radioactive isotope tracers, alongside the development of new interpretive mathematical models. Such advances have contributed to our understanding of the dynamics of memory and naïve T-cells in health. Additionally, these advances have enable us to address questions about the dynamics of viral infections (HIV, HTLV-I, EBV) and other pathologies such as ageing and leukaemia. Despite these advances, major gaps exist in our understanding of how best to investigate such quantitative aspects of human immunology. Specifically, differences exist between different labelling approaches and between different interpretive models of lymphocyte kinetics. To date, there has not been a forum dedicated to addressing these issues.

This meeting will bring together scientists and clinicians involved in studying the in vivo kinetics of human lymphocytes. We plan to involve scientists with expertise in the area of in vivo measurement of lymphocyte proliferation and death, those experienced in modelling T cell dynamics, and those with expertise in HIV and other infectious diseases of humans.

Programme

Speakers include Peter Beverley, Arne Akbar, Zvi Grossman, Rob de Boer, José Borghans, Vitaly Ganusov, Derek Macallan, Ben Seddon, Becca Asquith, Charles Bangham

Click here for a programme

For 19 May (day 1), the event is scheduled from 11am to 5:45pm
For 20 May (day 2), the event is scheduled from 8:45am to 4.30pm

Charges

£65 for attendance on either 19 May or 20 May
£100 for attendance on both days.

Abstracts

Abstract submission is now closed. We have received a large number of submissions, so thank you to all those that have sent in some work. All applicants should now have been informed of the decision of the scientific committee.

Venue

Meeting Room J
Regent’s College Conference Centre
Regent's College
Inner Circle
Regent's Park
London, UK
NW1 4NS

Click here for a location map.