13th Annual Midwest Islet Club
Hosted by the Vanderbilt Diabetes Center / Vanderbilt University
When
May 11-12, 2020
Where
Vanderbilt University Student Life Center
310 25th Ave. S.
Nashville TN 37240
Join us for two days
of exciting and collaborative engagement!
The goal is to foster greater communication and interaction between pancreatic islet cell biology investigators within the Midwest region. The meeting will be composed of both senior and junior investigators, with exclusively students, postdoctoral fellows and newly independent investigators serving as speakers. The exception is the keynote talk established in memory of the late Dr. Paul Lacy, who pioneered pancreatic islet isolation and transplantation in St. Louis.
Registration
Please note that due to space limitations, registration will be capped at 175 attendees.
Registration fees are $225 per person and are managed through EventBrite. Click here to register and you will automatically directed to pay after completing the form. Your registration is not considered complete until fees are paid!
Meeting start: Monday, May 11, at 1:30PM (registration and lunch available at 12PM)
Meeting end: Tuesday, May 12 (dinner banquet and entertainment)
Event Contact: Roland Stein, Ph.D. or Jan Hicks, Vanderbilt Diabetes Center
Event Contact Phone Number: Jan Hicks @ 615-936-1649
Abstract Submission
Faculty, staff, and trainees are invited to submit abstracts. There will be a poster session on Monday, May 11, and outstanding abstracts will be selected for oral presentations.
Abstract deadline: April 3, 2020
Please adhere to the abstract guidelines.
Hotel & Venue
The conference will be held at the Vanderbilt University Student Life Center, located at 310 25th Ave. S., Nashville TN 37240, on the Vanderbilt University campus.
Blocks of Room will be offered at Holiday Inn Nashville Vanderbilt, 2613 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN 37203/Tel: (615) 327-4707. Participants will be able to contact the hotel directly requesting a room in the block for which ever nights they need.
Hotel options are listed below and are all within walking distance to the venue.Keynote Lecture
Introducing the 2020 Lacy Lecturer
Christopher V. E. Wright, D.Phil.
Christopher Wright (Professor, Louise B. McGavock Endowed Chair, Dept. Cell & Developmental Biology) is Director of the Vanderbilt Program in Developmental Biology and Associate Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Stem Cell Biology. His B.Sc. was from the University of Warwick, U.K. (1977-1980), and included training in developmental biology under Drs. Alan Colman and Hugh Woodland. His D. Phil. in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford (1981-1984) with Dr. John Knowland focused on purifying and characterizing nuclear steroid receptors, and testing their ability to reprogram oocytes towards egg-yolk protein synthesis. From 1985-1990, Wright worked with Dr. Eddy De Robertis (Basel, Switzerland and then UC Los Angeles), to work on the at-that-time just-discovered vertebrate homeobox genes. Amongst many publications on such genes, he published the first description of Pdx1 in frogs, a marker of posterior-foregut embryonic endoderm, including the prospective pancreas. Since joining Vanderbilt in 1990, Wright has been considered to be amongst the leaders in studies of the transcriptional regulation of pancreas organogenesis. Genetic studies in mouse determined that Pdx1 and Ptf1a are essential in the multipotent progenitors of the early pancreas anlagen, with later critical roles in insulin-producing beta cells (Pdx1) or enzyme-secreting acinar cells (Ptf1a). From approximately 200 publications, selected principal discoveries include the first examples of pancreatic cell-fate switching by switching on or off specific transcription factors, and determining how these proteins control the developmental potential of stem and progenitor cells. One of Wright’s recent goals is to generate a high-resolution atlas of the entire cellular program of pancreas differentiation, using this information to understand how human pancreas formation occurs, and if autoimmune type 1 diabetes arises from improper organogenesis. Many graduate students and postdoctoral fellows have trained in the Wright laboratory, with many now running their own research programs in the USA and abroad.
Why is this conference for you?
Presentations selected from submitted abstracts will communicate the latest in cutting-edge pancreatic islet beta-cell research in relevance to both type-1 and -2 diabetes. The hope of the organizing committee is that the participation of the roughly 150 islet investigators will result in greater collaborations among individuals and their supporting groups.
Towards this end, funds have been raised to provide awards for the top three oral and poster presentations given by young investigators, postdoctoral fellows or students.
Meeting Photos
Supporters
We would like to thank our local supporters, regional Diabetes Research Centers , as well as industry and foundation supporters:
Hotel & Travel
Comfortable and affordable amenities
Vanderbilt University is accessible via a short drive from the Nashville International Airport (BNA). There are several ground transportation options from BNA to campus, including shuttles, taxi cabs, and rideshare services. If you would like help finding a roommate, please contact Jan Hicks.
Option 1 - Holiday Inn Nashville Vanderbilt
About the hotel
Reservations and information
This hotel is within walking distance of the meeting location.
A block of rooms is available at $159 per night. Please contact the hotel at 615-327-4707 requesting a room in the room block ISG or reserve online.
Reservation deadline: April 10, 2020