The Seventh Symposium on the Functional Genomics of Critical Illness and Injury to be held December 7, 2009 at the Natcher Conference Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.

The symposium will feature cutting-edge scientific presentations. In keeping with emerging and evolving trends in biomedicine, scientific foci will include MicroRNA, and innovations in nanotechnology and imaging.

This symposium series is a unique opportunity for communication and collaboration among the diverse fields committed to applying lessons from functional genomics at the bedside of critically ill and injured patients. We look forward to you joining us.

Advances in computational biology and high-throughput technologies have generated considerable interest in understanding complex biological systems. The application of these approaches to critical illness and injury offers the potential to define maladaptive programs of gene expression induced by infection, trauma, or other inflammatory triggers, as well as to detect biomarkers and genetic polymorphisms linked to these responses. However, the many disparate causes of critical illness and injury complicate studies aiming to improve outcomes for critically ill patients. Conducting research in the intensive care unit is difficult due to special ethical requirements related to patient consent as well as the complexity of conducting highly coordinated team science.

As the tools of systems biology mature, physicians will have a new set of resources to complement or even replace current therapeutic modalities. Functional genomic strategies offer the opportunity to navigate the physiome: addressing critical illness and injury at multiple levels from the organ to the genome. Microarrays, highly parallel single nucleotide polymorphism analyses, proteomic chips, and point-of-care monitoring devices are examples of technology that promise to revolutionize critical care medicine by developing a more global understanding of complex biologic processes and systems, integrating pathophysiology, cell biology, and prewired genetic programs. These efforts should enable a more accurate reflection of the interactive, emergent properties of adaptive and maladaptive host responses.

Special note: The symposium is being held in conjunction with the Annual Fall Meeting of the US Critical Illness and Injury Trials Group on December 8-9, 2009. For more information on the USCIITG meeting, please click here.

Key Dates:

Exhibitor Registration Deadline: November 6, 2009

Call For Abstracts Closes: November 20, 2009

Registration Closes: November 13, 2009

Meeting Date: Decemeber 7, 2009

USCIITG Meeting Date: Decemeber 8-9, 2009

Featured Speakers:

Jeremy Berg, PhD

Robin Choudhury, MA, DM

Bo Huang, PhD

Daniel Kastner, MD, PhD

Ali Khademhosseini, PhD

Kevin Morris, PhD

Walter Schubert, MD

Changchun Xiao, PhD