PROGRAMME

Saturday April 1st

15:00-19:00            Registration in Gibilmanna Monastery

 20.00               Dinner and Welcome Address in the Cathedral of Cefalu'

 Sunday April 2nd

7:30-8:15            Breakfast

8:30-10:20            Session I: Caspases (S. Srinivasula/R. De Maria)

Eric Eldering: BCR induced apoptosis is initiated by a zVAD insensitive protease which is under direct control of CD40.

Srinivasa Srinivasula: A regulatory role for Apaf 1 in caspase 9 function.

 Colin Adrain: DRADD is a nuclear-localized death domain adaptor protein that binds caspase-9 and promotes apoptosis.

 Astrid Danen-van Oorschot: Apoptin induces apoptosis specifically in human tumor cells: studies on its mechanism.

 Geert Van Loo: Two cell death pathways leading to necrosis and apoptosis: differential role of caspases and mitochondria.

 Jean-François Eléouët: The viral nucleocapside protein of the transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus, TGEV, is a target for caspase 6 and 7.

 10:20-10:50            Coffee break

 10:50-13:00            Session II: Mitochondria and cytotoxic drugs (R. Johnstone/V. Sutton)

Ricky Johnstone: Regulation of caspase-dependent but not caspase-independent cell death by the multidrug resistance protein, P-glycoprotein.

 Paola Costantini: Oxidation of a critical Thiol residue of the adenine nucleotide translocator enforces Bcl-2-independent permeability transition pore opening and apoptosis.

Cristina Muñoz-Pinedo: Biochemical differences in apoptosis induced by CD95 ligation or thymidilate-syntase inhibition.

 Vivien Sutton: Granzyme B induced apoptosis is regulated by pro- and anti- apoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family.

 Maria Rita Rippo: GD3 Ganglioside induces apoptosis via direct mithocondrial damage in a Bcl-2 controlled fashion.

 Luigi Ravagnan: Two distinct pathways leading to nuclear apoptosis.

 Anna Stepczynska: Differential role of caspase 8 and Bid cleavage during CD95- and anticancer drug induced caspase activation.  

13:00-14:30            Lunch at conference site

  14:30-15:45            Session III: Signaling (J.P. Medema/J. Borst)

Marjatta Rytömaa: Activation of the caspase cascade and the effect of Ras in detachment induced apoptosis.

Bryan Ballif: Regulation of cell survival by the MAPK-activated kinase, RSK1 and the phosphoinositide-dependent kinase, PDK1.

 Daniela Barilá: A nuclear tyrosine phosphorylation circuit: c-Jun as an activator and substrate of c-Abl and JNK.

 Antonio J. Vila-Coro: Chemokine receptor homo- and heterodimerization as a cellular mechanism to increase sensitivity and dynamic range of chemotaxis.

 

15:45-16:15            Coffee break

  16:15-18:20            Session IV: Neurology (H. Mehmet/M. Leist)

Huseyin Mehmet: Fas/CD95/APO-1 can function as a death receptor for neuronal cells in vitro and in vivo and is upregulated following cerebral hypoxic-ischemic injury to the developing rat brain.

Marcel Leist: Differential effects of Bcl-2, caspase inhibition and PARP deletion on survival of intracerebral neuronal transplants.

Deana Demjen: Apoptosis contributes to neuronal lost following spinal cord trauma.

Ana Martin-Villalba: Synergistic inhibition of CD95 ligand and TNF attenuates brain damage in stroke.

Christiane Volbracht: ATP-control of neuronal apoptosis triggered by microtubule breakdown.

Vincenzo De Laurenzi: Functional studies on p73.

Luciano D’Adamio: Cleavage of Alzheimer's b-amyloid precursor protein by g-secretase liberates an intracellular peptide that promotes apoptosis.

Monday April 3rd

 7:30-8:15            Breakfast

 8:30-10:00        Session V: TRAIL Signaling (H. Walczak/J. Borst) 

Henning Walczak: TRAIL-induced apoptosis is not inhibited by overexpression of Bcl-2 or Bcl-XL.

 Juthathip Mongkolsapaya: Structure of the apoptosis inducing TRAIL-DR5 complex.

 Martin Sprick: Caspase-8 and FADD/Mort1 are necessary components of the TRAIL-R2 death-inducing signalling complex (DISC).

 Marion MacFarlane: Active effector caspases and cleaved cytokeratins are sequestered into cytoplasmic inclusions following TRAIL-induced apoptosis.

  10:00-10:30            Coffee break

 10:30-11:25            Session VI: TRAIL Biology (H. Walczak/M. Hahne) 

Markus Weigand: Differential regulation of the CD95- and TRAIL-system on human peripheral T-lymphocytes.

 Katharina  Simon: Involvement of TRAIL receptor 2 in thymic negative selection.

 Martin Leverkus: Regulation of TRAIL sensitivity in primary and transformed human keratinocytes. 

11.25-13.00            Session VII: Clinical aspects of apoptosis (G. Condorelli/G. Stassi) 

Giorgio Stassi: FLIP (FLAME-1/I-FLICE) and Bcl-XL protect thyrocytes from Fas-mediated destruction in Graves’ disease.

Gianluigi Condorelli: Apoptotic pathways in cardiomyocytes.

 Thomas Brunner: Cyclosporin A-insensitive CD95 (Fas) ligand expression in the pathogenesis of acute intestinal Graft-versus-Host Disease.

 Corina Lorz: Proapoptotic FasL is present in normal kidney tubules and inflammed glomeruli.

 Marcello Pinti: Quantitative analysis of CD95 and CD95L mRNA expression in HIV infection.

 

13:00-14:30            Lunch at conference site 

 20:00               Dinner at the conference site

 Tuesday April 4th

 7:30-8:15            Breakfast

 8:30-10:20 Session VIII: Transcriptional regulation of apoptosis

                        (E. Baehrecke/A. Sala)

Eric Baehrecke: Steroid regulation of programmed cell death during Drosophila development.

 

Eva Szegezdi: Natural retinoic acids inhibit the activation induced T-cell death by modifying the function of Nur77.

 Arturo Sala: Apolipoprotein J (Clusterin), a protein required for neuroblastoma cell survival, is directly regulated by the B-myb oncoprotein and expressed in advanced disease stages.

Ann Zeuner: Interferon regulatory factor-1 and -2 regulate constitutive and interferon-gamma-induced expression of multiple caspases in monocytic cells.

 Adriana Eramo: Caspase mediated TAL-1 cleavage is required for erythroid cell apoptosis.

 Christopher Stroh: Novel approach for enhancing the susceptibility of cancer cells to chemotherapeutic drug induced apoptosis: inhibition of NF-kB through intracellular delivery of IkB by HSV-1 structural protein VP22. 

10:20-10:50            Coffee break

 10:50-13:00            Session IX: Anti- and pro-apoptotic mechanisms (M. Jäättelä/T. Brunner) 

Marco vanEijk: Follicular dendritic cells provide GC B cells with two anti-apoptotic signals.

 LorettaTuosto: Engagement of CD4 before TCR triggering regulates both Bax- and Fas-mediated apoptosis.

 Wanjun Chen: Requirement for transforming growth factor-beta-1 (TGF-b1) in controlling T cell apoptosis.

 Stefanie Tran: MAP Kinase-mediated regulation of FAS, TNF and TRAIL receptor-induced apoptosis in HELA cells.

 Francesca Bernassola: Charachterization of TGase-2 KO mice.

 Nils Holler: FLIP activates NF-kB and ERK signaling pathways and can divert Fas ligand-induced death signals to survival.

 Frank Neumann: The pro- and anti- apoptotic properties of cFLIP short depend upon its intracellular compartmentalisation.

 13:00-14:30            Lunch at conference site

 14:30-15:45            Session X: Heat Shock Proteins (M. Jäättelä/V. De Laurenzi) 

Marja Jäättelä: Hsp70 protects tumour cells from cell death by at least two distinct mechanisms.

 Fabio Martinon: Interaction of SODD with Hsp70/Hsc70 via the BAG domain.

 Jesper Nylandsted: Inhibition of Hsp70 synthesis leads to apoptotic death of breast cancer cells. 

15:45-16:15            Coffee break

 16:15-18.20            Session XI: Apoptosis and tumors (M. Hahne/J.P. Medema)

Jan Paul Medema: Immune escape of tumors in vivo.

 Jennifer Rohn: The role of a tumor-specific environment in the apoptotic activity of Apoptin.

 Larry Denner: Engagement of the Apoptotic Machinery in Prostate Cancer.

 Lucy Peltenburg: Molecular analysis of radiation-induced apoptosis in paraffin-embedded tumor and normal tissue of rectal cancer patients.

 Luisa Granziero: Modulation of Survivin expression by CD40L in B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL).

 Valerie Zimmermann: Protection against an non-immunogenic melanoma by vaccination with apoptotic tumor cells coupled with TNF-a. 

18:20               Concluding remarks

 19:00           Last Evening Party at the conference site

 Wednesday April 5th

 7:30-9:00            Breakfast

                          Departure