Purpose of the Conference

Homer Boushey

University of California, San Francisco, California

Tak H. Lee

Guy's Hospital, London, United Kingdom

André P. Perruchoud

University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Adam Wanner

University of Miami, Miami, Florida

	ARTICLE

TOP ARTICLE

The Transatlantic Airway Conference is held annually to review advances in basic biology that have important implications for students of airway structure, function, and disease. The conference brings together basic scientists whose work has not necessarily focused on the airway and clinical scientists whose work usually has. The conference also brings together scientists from the two sides of the Atlantic, and scientists from different traditions of investigation. The conference is intentionally kept small, to foster a free exchange of ideas among the investigators, but the proceedings are meant to be shared widely, as through the publication of this supplement to the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

The sixteenth conference took as its theme the mechanisms of airway remodeling. This phenomenon has attracted great interest, for it suggests that asthma, like chronic obstructive airway disease, involves altered regulation of growth, as well as function, of resident cells and tissues, and altered mechanisms of repair, as reflected by extracellular deposition of collagen.

The conference was fortunate in its chair, George Caughey, who assembled leaders in research on the physics of branching structures; on lung development; on the regulation of bronchial vessels, smooth muscle, epithelium, and secretory cells; and on the airway effects of different challenges, from proteases, to viruses, oxidants, and mechanical stress. Dr. Caughey's focus, humor, and readiness to define differences as a way of sharpening discussion made the exchanges following the presentation of each paper at once productive and enjoyable.

The scientific committee thanks the following participants: J. L. Black, Sydney; G. H. Caughey, San Francisco; A. F. Clement, Paris; D. B. Corry, Houston; R. Djukanovic, Southampton; J. M. Drazen, Boston; J. A. Elias, New Haven; J. V. Fahy and K. C. Fang, San Francisco; J. V. Fleury, Paris; N. Frossard, Nancy; J. Gauldie, Hamilton; S. J. Hirst, London; C. Hogaboam, Ann Arbor; J. C. Hogg, Vancouver; F. Kheradmand, Houston; A. Laitinen and L. A. Laitinen, Helsinki; J. R. Lamb, Edinburgh; D. M. McDonald, San Francisco; P. Maestrelli, Padua; C. G. Plopper, Davis; P. J. Sterk, Leiden; G. Sommerhoff, Munich; A. M. Vignola, Castelvetrano; A. F. Walls, Southampton; D. Warburton, Los Angeles; E. R. Weibel, Bern; and R. Wu, Davis.

The committee is additionally indebted to M. T. Lopez Vidriero, B. Jung, N. Zimmerman, D. Wiese, and the Boehringer-Ingelheim Company for their continuing, generous support of the conference and their professional skill in organizing the meeting.

Scientific Committee