Upcoming Medical Conferences in Banff

Emerging Cellular Therapies: Cancer and Beyond (Q1) is organized by Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology and will be held from Feb 08 - 12, 2020 at Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, Alberta, Canada. Description: After many years of fundamental research, cell-based therapies are now recognized as effective medicines for treatment of a specific subset of cancers as well as a growing list of autoimmune, degenerative and infectious diseases. This clinical progress has been propelled by exponential growth in understanding of the underlying cell biology, and increasingly sophisticated techniques for genetic engineering and for using synthetic biology to control cellular therapeutics. Cellular therapeutics are now poised for increasing impact both in cancer medicine and in the treatment of genetic, autoimmune and degenerative diseases. This conference will bring together fundamental researchers and translational scientists to discuss recent successes and highlight challenges across the spectrum of emerging cellular therapeutics. Another innovative aspect of this conference is the joint pairing with the Keystone Symposia conference on “Engineering the Genome” organized by Drs. Vic Myer and Erik Sontheimer. This unique pairing will provide an outstanding opportunity to cross-fertilize ideas and to facilitate formation of new collaborations between experts in genome engineering and experts in cell biology, cell-based therapies and synthetic biology. The conference will provide an opportunity to report emerging preclinical and clinical insights, present novel platforms, and highlight challenges related to both safety and efficacy of cell therapies. The broad disease focus will enhance collaborations between the cancer immunotherapy communities and those focused on developing cell therapies for non-malignant disease. Additional details will be posted as soon as they are available.

Engineering the Genome (Q2) is organized by Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology and will be held from Feb 08 - 12, 2020 at Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, Alberta, Canada. Description Genome editing is already transforming biological science and promises to do the same for human medicine. Technological capabilities are advancing rapidly and there are expected to be more than 30 genome editing therapies in clinical development by 2020. It is therefore important that practitioners in both academia and industry have the opportunity to learn about the latest improvements and applications. This conference will bridge that gap and provide an ideal environment for scientific exchange.  In addition, participants will be educated on the growing roster and utility of genome engineering platforms. There will be sessions on genome editing’s clinical advancements and the evolution of thinking in the field regarding translational sciences. This meeting is being paired with Emerging Cellular Therapies so that participants can come together with researchers who focus on cell-based therapies. Therefore, we anticipate attendees will have a greater awareness of the full range of genome engineering tools, both established and emerging and knowledge of best practices and pitfalls in clinical advancement. Additional details will be posted as soon as they are available.

14th Canadian Melanoma Conference 2020 is organized by Oncology Education and will be held from Feb 20 - 22, 2020 at Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, Alberta, Canada. Target Audience: This conference brings together medical oncologists, surgeons, dermatologists, radiotherapists, pathologists, molecular biologists, immunologists, and other allied health professionals interested in the treatment of melanoma worldwide. Additional details will be posted as soon as information is available.

Obesity and NAFLD: Mechanisms and Therapeutics (B3) is organized by Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology and will be held from Feb 23 - 27, 2020 at Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, Alberta, Canada. Description Energy metabolism underlies all facets of human health. Now, with rates of obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) surging, understanding how energy metabolism is governed is of the utmost interest. Halting the progression of NAFLD into nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is considered an unmet need in human health. At this meeting, we will discuss regulatory elements underlying obesity and NAFLD, and the metabolic underpinnings of NASH. We will focus on metabolites, hormones, and cellular signaling pathways. We will also examine the leading edge of therapeutic approaches for obesity and NASH. We will bring together scientists and physicians specializing in basic, translational, and clinical research, as well as industry scientists, to create a robust exchange of ideas on how to move the field forward.  Additional details will be posted as soon as they are available.

T Cell Memory (X2) Conference is organized by Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology and will be held from Mar 01 - 05, 2020 at Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, Alberta, Canada. Description This meeting will bring together immunologists with expertise in basic lymphocyte biology, vaccinology, and cancer immunotherapy to discuss the most recent advances in immunological memory. The meeting will be paired with B Cell Renaissance: Regulation, epigenetics, and Immunotherapy. A joint session will focus on B cell memory, and remaining sessions will be tilted towards T cell memory and helper T cell responses. The meeting will communicate the paradigm shifting discoveries on the molecular programming and epigenetic maintenance of lymphocyte differentiation states, introduce cutting edge tools to a broad audience, and promote cross-fertilization between diverse scientists to accelerate application of new concepts in immune memory for vaccines that prevent infectious disease or enhance the durability and function of adoptive cell therapies for treating cancer.  This meeting is timely because the recent identification of resident memory lymphocytes is changing how we strategize employing memory for prevention of infectious disease and the latest findings should be shared with the vaccine community. Interest in adoptive cell therapies has exploded, but success will depend on manipulating the durability and differentiation state of transferred cancer-fighting lymphocytes. The field of immunological memory is poised to address these challenges and contribute to clinical leveraging of this exciting therapeutic. Moreover, perhaps for the first time, this meeting will directly attempt to highlight problems and provide a solution to the nomenclature problems that have impeded discourse and advances related to memory T cell ontogeny.  Additional details will be posted as soon as they are available.

B Cell Renaissance: Epigenetics, Regulation and Immunotherapy (X1) is organized by Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology and will be held from Mar 01 - 05, 2020 at Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, Alberta, Canada. Description: This meeting will bring together experts in B cell biology to discuss the most recent advances in B cell studies from their initial education, through maturation, including effector or memory development, until terminal differentiation. Such experts are increasingly appreciative of the importance of the molecular changes, including epigenetic marks, modifications and factors that control and modulate B cell development and differentiation as well as the regulatory forces which influence functional paths of B cells. The complexities of B cell differentiation pathways through germinal centers and extra-follicular foci in primary lymphoid organs as well as novel interactions in diverse secondary lymphoid tissues are also under intense study in both mice and humans. In these and the interactions of B cells with lymphoid cells, non-lymphoid cells, and secreted factors in a myriad of environments, as they make their way from the cradle to the grave, will be considered in this conference. This will also elucidate the many players which influence and ultimately dictate the contribution of each unique B cell subset to homeostasis, immune defense or immunopathology. Understanding the drivers which influence B cell differentiation and function will enable precise harnessing of these key elements to optimize the immuno-therapeutic effect of B cells and their antibodies in autoimmune disease, infection, and cancer. Additional details will be posted as soon as they are available.

Tumor Metabolism (C2) is organized by Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology and will be held from Mar 08 - 12, 2020 at Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, Alberta, Canada. Description This conference brings together leaders in tumor metabolism to discuss ongoing efforts to understand and target metabolism of proliferating cancer cells and their support network. The field of tumor metabolism is one of the oldest in cancer biology, dating back to the seminal work of Otto Warburg in the 1920s. Clinical importance of tumor metabolism is well validated by the successes both of FDG-PET imaging and of antimetabolites as chemotherapeutic agents. The recognition that oncogenes both promote the Warburg effect and activate anabolic pathways has provided impetus for revitalized examination of tumor metabolism. This meeting will address key questions regarding the metabolism of proliferating cells, the unique metabolic features of tumors, and the associated opportunities for therapeutic intervention, including at the interface between metabolism and immunotherapy. Key scientific questions include (1) What features of cancer cell metabolism are shared across proliferating cells, and which are cancer specific? (2) What are the dependencies of tumors on host metabolism, and what is the impact of tumor metabolism on host cells, including invading lymphocytes? (3) How does signaling drive metabolism, and how does metabolism impact signaling and cell fate decisions? Through discussion of these and other questions, the conference aims to generate new scientific ideas, promote collaborations, and enhance dissemination of the latest technologies and best practices for metabolic studies. As the premier venue sharing important unpublished data in the tumor metabolism field, this meeting accelerates scientific discovery and the development of new strategies to treat cancer.  Additional details will be posted as soon as they are available.

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) West/Central CME is organized by The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) and will be held from Mar 12 - 14, 2020 at Banff, Alberta, Canada. Additional details will be posted as soon as they are available.

Cancer Evolution and Combinatorial Cancer Therapies: Concepts and Challenges (L1) is organized by Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology and will be held from Jan 19 - 23, 2020 at Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, Alberta, Canada. Description Progress in understanding the clonal and sub-clonal processes driving tumor evolution, in understanding tumor heterogeneity, in defining new cancer dependencies and in understanding mechanisms of therapeutic resistance have converged to help inform more rational approaches to achieving the development of transformative combination therapeutic regimens in cancer. Nonetheless, examples of highly effective rationally elucidated combinations remains rare and the pre-clinical and clinical development challenges to this goal are substantial. As an example, the emergent role of immunotherapeutics having curative potential has led to tremendous excitement, yet increased complexity. The broad swath of empiric based clinical trials attests to the continued or growing need for improved pre-clinical means by which we identify the transformative combinations. This meeting will bring together evolutionary and computational biologists, experts in functional genomics, translational scientists, drug discovery leaders and physicians leaders in clinical development. The meeting will span the beginnings of the cancer problem starting with how evolutionary processes drive the “natural” progression of cancer and how such processes lead to the measured heterogeneous populations of cells resident in all tumors. These two related forces, driven at least in part by ongoing mutational processes, then combine to give rise to therapeutic resistance and increasingly we can robustly identify mechanisms relevant to humans in pre-clinical models. The deeper understanding of these forces can inform specific combination therapeutics, but increasingly combination hypotheses are being discovered though genome-scale functional approaches (e.g. CRISPR, shRNA). These studies now taking place in both the targeted and I/O therapeutic fields motivate a session and additional talks aimed at understanding how I/O and targeted therapeutics are similar or distinct and to seek the lessons from the clinical trial outputs in the I/O field that will emerge over the next year. Finally, clinical development paradigms for more rapidly testing and developing combinations will be considered Additional details will be posted as soon as they are available.

CAPL Conference 2020 is organized by Canadian Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (CAPL) / Academie canadienne de psychiatrie et droit (ACPD) and will be held from Apr 19 - 22, 2020 at Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, Alberta, Canada. Additional details will be posted as soon as they are available.