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Chair, 51st Annual Thomas L. Petty Aspen
Lung Conference
Co-Chair, 51st Annual Thomas L. Petty Aspen
Lung Conference
Co-Chair, 51st Annual Thomas L. Petty Aspen
Lung Conference
This year's Thomas L. Petty Aspen Lung Conference, entitled "Asthma: Insights and Expectations," was the Golden Anniversary meeting, and marked the 51st time that luminaries in the field of lung diseases and related disorders gathered in Aspen, Colorado to consider one of these diseases in depth. Asthma was first addressed as a conference topic at Aspen in 1961, when "The Relationship Between Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease" was considered by the participants and summarized by David V. Bates. In his summary, Dr. Bates posed many questions that as of today remain unanswered, with reference to topics such as airway smooth muscle structure and function, surfactant, mucus, airway hyperresponsiveness, steroid pharmacotherapy, and the genetic basis of disease, all topics that were again addressed now 47 years later. In follow up to this initial conference, asthma has been the sole focus of five subsequent conferences (in 1972, 1984, 1994, 2002 and 2008) and an important thematic element in many others. This year's conference was eloquently summarized by Homer Boushey, who rose superbly to meet the challenge of organizing the vast and disparate pieces of information presented at the meeting into a coherent theme.
One of the challenges in organizing a meeting on a topic such as asthma, with its many potential contributing elements, is deciding on the approach to take: should it be structural, focusing on various elements of airway anatomy as contributors to the overall process; should it be functional, focusing on the panoply of physiologic abnormalities; or would an approach focusing more on genetic and environmental origins of disease and natural history across the lifespan be most appropriate? Our answer was to try to take a piece of each of these areas and shine light on the disease as a whole with targeted State of the Art lectures. As inflammation is a sine qua non of asthma, the conference began with two presentations, one from Yvonne Janssen-Heininger and one from John Fahy, which translated important observations about airway inflammation in asthma from the basic laboratory to the patient. The program then moved into the important role that innate immunity plays in asthma, presented by Patricia Finn, which served as an appropriate foundation for Stokes Peebles' presentation on the role that bacteria and viruses play in modifying asthma risk and phenotype. Attention turned the next morning to the origins of asthma, with Fernando Martinez presenting data from his own work and that of others on biological factors that influence the risk of developing asthma, and Erwin Gelfand extending these observations to established asthma in children and the extent to which biological pathways shown to be important in animal models might be relevant targets for altering asthma in children.
After the traditional Thursday afternoon picnic, the meeting picked up again Friday morning with Dirkje Postma's presentation on the genetics of asthma, and among the many important points raised in her lecture was the importance of the airway epithelium in the pathogenesis of asthma, a point that not only reinforced those of Drs. Janssen-Heininger and Fahy but one that was further expanded on by Bob Schleimer in his presentation on the airway epithelium. After these presentations, the relationship between structure and function moved to the fore in three important presentations from Julian Solway, regarding the importance of airway smooth muscle; Qutayba Hamid, who elucidated the current state of knowledge about airway remodeling; and Charlie Irvin, who detailed the physiologic manifestations of the asthmatic lung. This transition to discussions of physiologic abnormalities served as an excellent stepping stone to Rob Lemanske's presentation summarizing important contributions of asthma clinical trials, not just as mechanisms for identifying novel treatment paradigms, but also as a means of understanding how many of the aforementioned pathobiologic concepts should influence how we care for our patients with asthma.
As is custom, the State of the Art speakers were paired both with oral and poster presentations, and we wish to thank everyone who presented at this year's meeting for opening our eyes to the vast array of cutting-edge work being done in asthma. We invite you to enjoy the State of the Art articles, Dr. Boushey's summary, and the presentation abstracts included in this supplement, and we look forward to the important role of the Thomas L. Petty Aspen Lung Conference in another half-century of progress in understanding respiratory diseases.
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Conflict of Interest Statement: R.J.M. received less than $10,000 per year per company (GlaxoSmithKline [GSK], TEVA, Novartis/Genentech, Schering, Merck) for lecture fees and/or Advisory Board combined. He also received a research grant from GSK for $98,000 and Altana for $360,000. M.K. has received research funding from Genentech and Novartis from 2006–2008, GE Healthcare in 2007–2008, Bronchus in 2007–2008, Asthmatx 2006–2008, GSK 2008, and Biomarck in 2008. She received consulting fees from Advisory Board participation from AstraZeneca in 2006–2007, Merck in 2006–2007, GSK in 2006 and 2008, Genentech in 2006, Novartis in 2006–2008, and Sepracor in 2008. She also received lecture fees from Merck in 2006–2008, AstraZeneca in 2007 and 2008, Schering in 2007, and GSK in 2008 for participation in their speakers' bureau. E.R.S. between 2006 and 2008 has served as an advisor or consultant to Dey, GSK, and Shering-Plough and received grant funding from Boehringer-Ingelheim, Dey GSK, and Novartis.
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