Synopsis

Receptor Tyrosine Kinases (RTKs) are cell-surface receptors that, upon ligand binding, regulate cell-to-cell communication during embryonic development and in adult life. Among RTKs, the twenty-two Fibroblast Growth Factors (FGFs) and five FGF Receptors play crucial roles in proliferation, migration, differentiation, and metabolism. Aberrant FGF signalling underlies genetic and metabolic disorders, age-related diseases, and cancer. Advances in structural biology, omics technologies, and disease models as well as very promising clinical trials have greatly facilitated our understanding of FGF functions. However, many outstanding questions remain unanswered, including how FGFs interact with other signaling pathways to regulate the specificity of cellular responses in development, health, and disease.

Conference Goals:

1. Bring together leaders in academia, clinical medicine, and industry with an interest in FGF and other signalling pathways to foster synergistic collaborations.
2. Promote cross-fertilization of new ideas on how RTK signalling regulates pathophysiology.
3. Share innovations that are impacting basic and translational signalling research.

Key Sessions

• Frontiers in FGF Signalling Regulation
• New Technologies to Study Cell Signalling
• FGF Signalling in Development and Adult Homeostasis
• Signalling Underlying FGF-driven Genetic and Age-related Diseases
• FGF Signalling in Tissue Regeneration and Stem Cells
• FGF Signalling in Metabolic Diseases
• Molecular Mechanisms of FGF Signalling in Cancer
• Targeting the FGF-FGFR Axis in Translational Research 
• Past, Present and Future of Cell Signalling

Confirmed Invited Speakers

Saverio Bellusci (Justus Liebig University, Giessen)
Pier Paolo Di Fiore (University of Milan)
Sandra Goetze (ETH Zürich)
Ge Guo (University of Exeter)
Mohammad K Hajihosseini (University of East Anglia)
Zhifeng Huang (Wenzhou Medical Institute)
Marja Hurley (University of Connecticut)
Jos Jonkers (Netherlands Cancer Institute)
C-TERMINAL CONTROL OF FGFR2 AND FGFR3 ONCOGENICITY
John Ladbury (University of Leeds)
Laurence Legeai-Mallet (INSERM)
Amy Merril-Brugger (University of Southern California)
Moosa Mohammadi (Wenzhou Medical Institute)
David Ornitz (Washington University)
Olivier Pertz (University of Bern)
Sougata Roy (University of Maryland)
Maria Sibilia (University of Vienna)
Jarrad Scarlett (Seattle Children’s Hospital/University of Washington)
Jacqueline Starrett (Tyra Biosciences)
Abigail Tucker (King’s College, London)
THE ROLE OF FGFS IN PATTERNING THE TEMPOROMANDIBULAR JOINT DURING DEVELOPMENT
Elizabeth Wellberg (University of Oklahoma)
Sabine Werner (ETH Zürich)
Jin-San Zhang (Wenzhou Medical University)

Target Audience

This meeting will unite established investigators, colleagues new to the field, and early career scientists to discuss game-changing mechanistic and translational advances in cell signalling with the goal of understanding its regulatory mechanisms and devising new therapeutic tools.