The topic of pigmentation has some interesting connotations. The melanocyte is a major determinant of skin and coat color. This color in turn helps define appearance, attractions and interactions between individuals of the same, or of different species. Humans have a limited array of colors to choose from. By contrast, insects, birds, lizards and plants manage to generate a wide spectrum of colors. As we identify the molecular pathways associated with pigmentation, we can also ask ourselves: how does color affect our behaviour? Can we manipulate color? Is color an indicator of health and disease? Any related topic is open to discussion in the meeting rooms and hallways of the Knickerbocker Hotel in downtown Chicago.

Chicago is the hub of United Airlines and Soutwest Airlines. If you chose flying, check whether they have special offers.

If you prefer other means of public transportation into Chicago, visit www.amtrak.com or www.greyhound.com. If you just bought a new car and prefer to take it for a spin, find driving directions to the Millenium Knickerbocker Hotel at www.millenniumhotels.com. Parking downtown can be expensive and public transportation in and around the city is well organized. The 'L' rapid transit system takes you around downtown (www.chicago-l.org) and metra trains (www.metrarail.com) and buses (www.transitchicago.com) will take you to the suburbs and back.


On your night of arrival, we will welcome you with a cocktail party at the Knickerbocker hotel. Registrants interested in a hotel room, please send an e-mail to ilepool@lumc.edu. Some lunches and dinner on Saturday night are 'on your own' but in Chicago, you are never alone. Many nice restaurants are close, and you are at the foot of the Hancock tower with magnificent views of the city if you prefer to make up your mind from above.

On Friday evening, buses will take us to Navy Pier for a cruise on the Mystic Blue, run by Premier Yachts, Inc. Log on to www.MysticBlueCruises.com for a virtual tour of every deck of the ship. The food is prepared fresh on board of the ship daily. The Chicago skyline was voted one of the top 10 most spectacular panoramic views in America by the Society of American Travel Writers. During the cruise drs. John Pawelek and Richard Spritz will perform the Concert à Deux Violoncelles by François Couperin. With warm music in the background, we are looking for the right ambience to set up many lasting research collaborations you never thought possible.

Ask any one of our local organizing committee members if you have questions or suggestions about the meeting program, the venue, registration and submission of abstracts, meeting participants, social events or anything we haven't mentioned.

Our local organizing committee
members are:
Deborah Lang Ph.D., Instructor, Department of Medicine, section of Dermatology, University of Chicago. Dr. Lang's webpage: medicine.uchicago.edu/faculty_profile/ faculty_profile.asp?empl_id=8886
Jose Guevara Patino M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of General Surgery, University of Chicago. Dr. Guevara Patino's webpage: biomed.uchicago.edu/common/faculty/ guevara.html
Brian Nickoloff M.D., Ph.D., Professor and Vice-Chair, Department of Pathology and Director, Oncology Institute, Loyola University Chicago. Dr. Nickoloff's webpage: www.luhs.org/depts/path/physicians/ nickoloff.htm
Ping Yu Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, University of Chicago. For information on Dr Yu's research interests, visit: biomed.uchicago.edu/common/ faculty/fu.html
Claudia Hernandez, M.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Dermatology, University of Illinois Chicago. Dr. Hernandez webpage: www.uic.edu/depts/mcde/hernandez.html
Vijayasaradhi Setaluri, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Dermatology, University of Wisconsin. For more information, visit www.dermatology.wisc.edu/ SiteContent.aspx?id=103
Dr. Caroline Le Poole, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Pathology/ Oncology Institute, Loyola University Chicago. Dr. Le Poole's webtext: www.luhs.org/svcline/cancer/research/ Faculty2.htm#Caroline%20Le%20Poole

Great keynote speakers will address the major questions about pigmentation and diversity at our 2007 PASPCR conference.

Nina G. Jablonski, Ph.D., Professor and Head, Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Jablonski's research interests touch on the evolution of human skin coloration. Visit one of Dr Jablonski's web pages at: www.calacademy.org/research/anthropology/jablonski/
Barbara Gilchrest, M.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Dermatology at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center (BMC). She is also the founding Director of the BMC Laser Center. For more information, visit www.bumc.bu.edu/Dept/Content.aspx?DepartmentID=57&PageID=5951
Carole LaBonne, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Northwestern University in Chicago. Dr. LaBonne is interested in the formation, migration and derivation of neural crest cells. For more information, visit www.biochem.northwestern.edu/ibis/faculty/labonne.htm
Alan Houghton, M.D., Chief of the Clinical Immunology Service, Head of the Melanoma Disease Management Team, and Chairman of the Immunology Program at Sloan Kettering Institute in New York City. Dr. Houghton is actively developing vaccine strategies to treat melanoma. Visit a webpage at www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/11014.cfm
Victoria Holloway Barbosa, M.D., Director of L'Oreal's Institute For Ethnic Hair & Skin Research in Chicago. Dr Holloway Barbosa has organized several meetings on the topic of ethnic hair and skin. For more information visit www.acfnewsource.org/science/ozone_trees.html
Mary Hendrix, Ph.D., President and Scientific Director for the Children's Memorial Research Center and the Medical Research Institute Council Professor, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr Hendrix researches structure/function relationships contributing to cell motility and cancer metastasis. Visit a page at www.cancer.northwestern.edu/Leadership/leadership_hendrix.cfm
Beatrice Mintz, Ph.D., Senior Member of the basic research division of Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, PA. Research in her lab is devoted to understanding gene expression by malignant melanoma cells as it compares to normal melanocytes. Dr. Mintz is well know for the development of a mouse model of spontaneous melanoma formation. For more, visit www.fccc.edu/research/pid/mintz/
Rick Kittles, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago. Dr Kittles’ research interests are focused on the relationships between skin color, genetic ancestry and susceptibility to disease. Visit a recent webpage at medicine.uchicago.edu/faculty_profile/faculty_profile.asp?empl_id=9960
Mitchell Denning, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pathology and member of the Cutaneous Oncology research program at Loyola University Chicago. Dr. Denning is investigating the signaling pathways that affect skin tissue homeostasis and skin cancer, with a special emphasis on protein kinase C. Visit Dr. Denning's webpage at www.luhs.org/depts/molbio/denning.htm
Heinz Arnheiter, M.D., Senior Investigator, NINDS. Dr Arnheiter's laboratory is investigating molecular mechanisms of neural crest development and patterning of the neuroepithelium in the eye and neural tube. More information on Dr. Arnheiter can be found at neuroscience.nih.gov/Lab.asp?Org_ID=21

When you submit an abstract for the '07 meeting, please choose from the following topics to have it evaluated by the appropriate member of our scientific review committee: Developmental Biology, Evolutionary biology, Immunobiology, Pathology and treatment of pigmentary disorders, Biochemistry, Stem cell Biology, Sociobiology, Genetics, Neurobiology or if these topics are not a good fit: Miscellaneous. We will ultimately adjust our session topics according to the abstracts submitted.

 
Download  PDF-file of complete program (6 pages)
 
Thursday, September 13, 2007
3-6 PMRegistration
6-7 PMKeynote lecture: Dr. Nina Jablonski (Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA)
The evolution of human skin color
7-9 PMCocktail party at the Knickerbocker Hotel
 
Friday, September 14, 2007
8-9 AMKeynote lecture: Dr. Carole LaBonne (Nortwestern University, Chicago, IL)
Control of MITF function in melanocyte development and melanoma
 
 Session 1: Cell Biology and Pigmentation
9-10:30 AMSelected abstract presentations
10:30-11 AMCoffee break
11-12 AMKeynote lecture: Dr. Barbara Gilchrest (Boston University, Boston, MA)
Racial determinants of pigmentation: a true black box
12-1:30 PMLunch / Poster viewing
 
 Session 2: Malignant transformation
1:30-3 PMSelected abstract presentations
3-4 PMKeynote lecture: Dr. Alan Houghton (Sloan Kettering Institute, New York, NY)
Melanosomes, melanocytes, melanoma and immunity
 
 Session 3: Stem Cell Biology and Differentation
4-5:30 PMSelected abstract presentations
7-11 PMCruise on the Mystic Blue from Navy Pier with dinner and dance
 
Saturday, September 15, 2007
8-9 AMKeynote lecture: Dr. Victoria Holloway Barbosa (Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL)
Addressing ethnic diversity in research
 
 Session 4: Pathology and treatment of pigmentary disorders
9-10:30 AMSelected abstract presentations
10:30-11 AMCoffee break
11-12 AMKeynote lecture: Dr. Mary Hendrix (Northwestern University, Chicago, IL)
Convergence of embryonic and tumorigenic signaling pathways resulting in melanoma tumor cell plasticity
12-1 PMLunch / Poster viewing
1-2 PMAaron B. Lerner Award lecture: Dr. Beatrice Mintz (Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA)
Malignant melanoma in mouse models: Subtypes of primary cutaneous tumors, widespread metastasis, and ectopic tumors
 
 Session 5: Genetics and gene Expression
2-3 PMSelected abstract presentations
 
 Session 6: Immunobiology of melanocyte cells
3-4 PMSelected abstract presentations
4-4:30 PMTea break
4:30-5:30 PMKeynote lecture: Dr. Rick Kittles (University of Chicago, Chicago, IL)
The genetics of human skin pigmentation
 
Sunday, September 16, 2007
8-9 AMPoster viewing / Business meeting
9-10 AMKeynote lecture: Dr. Mitchell Denning (Loyola University, Chicago, IL)
Protein Kinase C heterogeneity in melanocyte biology
 
 Session 7: Biochemistry and signaling pathways
10-11:30 AMSelected abstract presentations
11:30-12:30Keynote lecture: Dr. Heinz Arnheiter (NIH/NINDS)
The role of MITF isoforms during pigment cell development
 
12:30-1 PMFarewell