Shock 2007 Preliminary Program Announcement

The 30th Annual Conference on Shock will convene in Baltimore, Maryland on 9-12 June 2007. The  preliminary program includes these new workshops and symposia to interest members of the Shock community.

Choosing groups.    John Marshall, M.D. hosts a practical session on the art and science of selecting groups for experimentation. Invited speakers (Including Dr. Cynthia Otto and Dr. Charles Natanson) will discuss:

• How do you develop inclusion/exclusion criteria, and how do you define a control group?
• What special considerations apply when the experimental groups are animals?
• When sample sizes are constrained, how can you optimize the chance for finding meaningful answers through experimental design? and
• Where humans are enrolled in clinical trials, what are the consequences of therapeutic misassignment?

The National Shock and Injury Institute: What if?    Mitchell Fink, M.D. chairs a session during which leaders from our community discuss their vision of what an Institute dedicated to Shock and Injury Science would prioritize and pursue as research agendas. Come hear the different perspectives, join the critique, and participate in harmonizing an agenda for the future of shock research!  Drs. Frederic A. Moore and Lyle ('Linc') Moldawer will speak.

Lost in Translation    Craig M. Coopersmith, M.D. leads a symposium aimed at understanding the barriers to —and promise of—translating research at the bench to care at the bedside. Topics include:

• Why animal studies fail to translate to humans (Dr. Edwin Deitch);
• New strategies for translating from bench to bedside (Dr. Edward Abraham);
• The path from guidelines to behaviors focusing on the relationship between individual decisions and team dynamics (Dr. Vimla Patel);
• The creation of usable decision support algorithms in the eICU (Dr. Michael Breslow); and
• How the “Surviving Sepsis” campaign translated basic science into care bundles (Dr. Mitchell Levy).

Where have all the mediators gone?  Kevin Tracey, M.D. guides a symposium that examines the transition from a focus on individual mediators to a focus on networks of molecules and responses. The speakers will address:

• From mediators to networks: a new perspective on inflammation (Dr. Steve Calvano);
• The digital mouse-- modeling mediator responses and implications for human trials (Dr. Steven Chang);
• Removing circulating mediators with hemodiafiltration (Dr. Hiroyuki Hirasawa); 
• Mediators in sepsis: how the industry perspective changed from the 1990's to 2007 (Dr. John Holaday); and
• Vitalin: Imagining a new mediator (Dr. John Bartlett).

Adenosine in inflammation, shock and trauma. William Law, Ph.D. and colleagues  Drs.  George Hasko, Michail Sitkovsky, H. Thomas Lee, and Wolfgang Junger  focus on the physiological systems impacted by adenosine during those  inflammatory processes especially relevant to shock and trauma. Specific genomic and metabolomic issues surrounding adenosine-mediated actions will be highlighted through topical presentations including:

• Interactions between adenosine deaminase and adenosine receptors: signaling in primary macrophages ;
• Differential effects of A2 adenosine receptor deficiency in hemorrhage, trauma and sepsis;
• The 'danger' sensors that stop the immune response: the A2 adenosine receptors
• The role of A3 adenosine receptors in inflammation and sepsis
• And more!

In addition to these new highlights, the 2007 meeting will feature

• The Best of the Year’s Research in Shock
• Reports from the most promising Young Investigators in their annual competition
• A new program featuring our International Membership
• 25th Annual Presidential Run

Mark your calendars now to join us in Baltimore 9-12 June 2007!