? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The life cycle of a lung transplant spans donation, explanation, preservation, implantation and finally accommodation. Through each of these stages innate and adaptive responses involving inflammation and fibrosis can harm the life-saving graft. Emerging insights into these events create the potential for new interventions that promote organ health and patient survival. With an emphasis on integration of basic, translational and clinical approaches, the 59th Annual Aspen Lung Conference will focus on the central question of each of these stages: how can knowledge of the mechanisms underlying allograft injury, airway inflammation and remodeling be translated into effective approaches to improve long-term allograft survival? To address these fundamental issues, we have organized the program into a series of thematic sessions focusing on each stage of the lifecycle of a lung transplant. Each session will be anchored by state-of-the-art presentations from thought leaders in each respective area, with ample time dedicated to scientific debate. We plan to intertwine experts in the field of lung transplantation with experts in immunology, inflammation and remodeling from outside the lung transplant community. These presentations will be complemented by shorter talks and poster sessions, maximizing the opportunity for investigators at all career levels to participate in the conference. Our goal is to encourage collaboration across diverse scientific disciplines with new investigative approaches brought to bear on the field of lung transplantation. The diverse themes will be reconciled in a concluding Conference Summary, and the conclusions and major findings of this Conference will be disseminated via publication in an open-access, PubMed cited journal. Our overall objective is to assemble thought leaders in transplantation to educate the next generation of scientists and define the next big steps to be taken in the field. The theme of the 59th Annual Thomas L. Petty Aspen Lung Conference is Lung Transplantation: Opportunities for Repair and Regeneration. By emphasizing an integrated approach, this meeting will address key scientific concepts as well as the practical implementation of advances in lung immunology, genetics/genomics, pathology and molecular biology. The overall objective of the conference is to foster collaboration between basic scientists and clinical investigators within, and from outside the field of lung transplantation through the identification of shared interests in lung allograft inflammation and remodeling. Therefore, the 2016 Aspen Lung Conference provides the potential to showcase the current state of the art of lung transplantation and could provide novel innovation to this field with a focus on how to translate new pathobiological concepts to treatment approaches. Development of these new collaborations is expected to yield substantive benefit to patient care. Narrative: Lung transplantation has emerged as a viable therapy for the treatment of end-stage pulmonary parenchymal and vascular disease. Despite three decades of improvement in medical care, immunosuppressant therapy and surgical technique, long-term allograft survival lags behind that of other solid organ transplants. Approximately 3500 lung transplants are performed annually and it is estimated that there are over 20,000 living lung transplant recipients. Improvement in long-term allograft health and survival is therefore an unmet medical need associated with significant health care utilization and economic consequences. Understanding the pathophysiology of innate immune responses resulting in allograft injury and remodeling and developing novel strategies to limit or prevent the progression of allograft fibrosis is expected to significantly impact the approach to lung allograft injury from both diagnostic and treatment perspectives. Consequently, the goals of the 2016 Aspen Lung Conference are highly consistent with the mission of the NHLBI, as reflected by its long- standing support of the Aspen Lung Conference.

R13HL132459

2016-06-01

2017-05-31