The University of Notre Dame will host the XIV International Workshop on Molecular and Cellular Biology of Plasminogen Activation June 4 to 8 (Tuesday to Saturday).
The co-chairs of the conference are Francis J. Castellino and Victoria A. Ploplis of Notre Dame’s W. M. Keck Center for Transgene Research. The conference is co-sponsored by the Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend and Memorial Hospital of South Bend.
The plasminogen activation system and related proteolytic systems are essential regulators of tissue remodeling events as well as of cell functions through activation of cell signaling pathways. Through early studies involving in vitro biochemical investigations and, more recently, in vivo biological studies involving gene modified technology, the plasminogen activation pathway has been identified as a major participant in the regulation and progression of a number of clinically relevant human diseases. These include cancer, cardiovascular diseases, neurological pathologies and bacterial pathogenesis.
The conference’s keynote speaker will be Désiré Collen, director of the Molecular Cardiovascular Medicine Group (comprising the Center for Molecular and Vascular Biology of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Center for Transgene Technology and Gene Therapy of the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology) in Leuven, Belgium.
Collen has co-authored more than 620 research papers and has received four honorary degrees. He led the team that initially developed t-PA, currently the most effective drug for thrombolytic therapy of acute myocardial infarction.
Contact: Victoria Ploplis, 574-631-4017, vploplis@nd.edu