ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

Remarkable progress has been made in the treatment of HIV and Hepatitis C using combination retroviral agents. Will the next major advance occur with other retrovirals or will the vaccine approach stage a comeback? What have we learnt from recent research?

The ability to analyse circulating cellular and cell free DNA in blood samples allows access to information from diseased tissues, tumours and even the complete foetal DNA In the maternal circulation. With rapid sequencing and assessment of methylation sites, new possibilities are developing for insights into disease diagnosis and staging, as well as assessing disease risk with “genetic risk scores” and neonatal screening.

The anonymised linkage of large datasets of routinely collected data from health care and beyond, has potential to be larger and more extensive that traditional cohort studies, involving the whole community. Linkage to biological data/ genomic information and routine storage and analysis of residual clinical samples may extend the reach of this methodology further. What are the current successes of this approach and where can it take us? Can it replace RCTs?

HIF-1 is a transcription factor that acts as a master regulator of O2 homeostasis It modulates the expression of an array of genes and many of them are involved in the cellular adaptation to hypoxia including Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), Erythropoietin (EPO), glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1), heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1), and endothelial nitric oxide (eNOS) synthase. As HIF-1 stabilization is an endogenous cellular mechanism to reduce hypoxia-induced injury, it is hypothesized that pre and post-hypoxic stabilization of HIF-1 can enhance protection and reduce tissue damage. Drugs that target this systems have a wide potential for benefit across different diseases and raise the possibility of finding new targets for drugs in cellular metabolism. Additional novel druggable target pathways in cellular metabolism are currently being identified.

Competitive abstracts will also be accepted on any topic relating to translational research for presentation during the “open theme” session.

Click on the ‘Abstract Submission’ button and follow the submission instructions carefully and in particular please note:

• Abstracts should only be submitted in English.
• Abstracts are not edited by the organisers and author corrections will NOT be accepted after final submission. Abstracts should therefore be checked carefully for accuracy prior to submission.
• Authors’ names should be provided in the format ‘A. Smith’. The submitting author should be the presenting author.
• The title should be a maximum of 150 characters. Abstracts should be a maximum of 2000 characters (approximately 250 words) including spaces.
• Abstracts should be structured using the following headings: Aim(s)/Objective(s), Methods, Results and Discussion and/or Conclusions.
• Abstracts should be as informative as possible and:
  • mention statistical methods where appropriate,
  • statements such as “results will be discussed” or “data will be presented” will not be accepted,
  • non-standard abbreviations should be described in full when first mentioned followed by the abbreviation in parentheses,
  • the names of authors, and any indication of affiliation or address, are to be avoided in the title or text of the abstract to warrant anonymity for peer review.