On behalf of the organizing committee, it is my great pleasure to announce the 26h International Symposium on Molecular Cell Biology of Macrophages (MMCB2019), which will be held on June 6th and 7th, 2019 at Ito International Research Center (IIRC) at the Hongo campus of the University of Tokyo.
In 1991, Professor Kouji Matsushima (Professor emeritus at The University of Tokyo) organized the 1st MMCB at Kanazawa and started the Japanese Society for Molecular Cell Biology of Macrophages. Since then MMCB has been held annually. Two years ago, Professor Toshiaki Ohteki has become the 2nd President of Japanese Society for Molecular Cell Biology of Macrophages.
Inflammation, defined as “calor, dolor, rubor, and tumor”, occurs in a variety of diseases ranging from infectious diseases to autoimmune diseases. Recent progresses in our understanding of molecular and cellular mechanisms behind inflammation have expanded a pathogenic role of inflammation from the above mentioned “conventional” inflammatory diseases to metabolic diseases such as obesity and atherosclerosis, heart failure, ageing, carcinogenesis, and cancer metastasis. Monocytes/macrophages are a key player driving inflammation in the disease states. Our understanding of molecular mechanisms behind inflammatory diseases help us identify therapeutic targets, and enable us control a variety of inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. This symposium, therefore, focuses on our continuous efforts “Decoding and controlling inflammatory diseases”.
The symposium consists of 4 sessions focusing on the relation between inflammation and diseases, “Inflammatory disease”, “Cancer immunity”, “Tissue repair, fibrosis, and aging” and “Metabolism and macrophage”. I am happy to invite 20 distinguished scientists from all over the world. In addition to the symposia with invited speakers, we welcome all of you to present your recent findings at Poster Session (Poster Award and selected oral presentation are programmed). Because official language in this meeting is English, participants from abroad are most welcome.
We look forward to your abstract and participation in MMCB2019, which, I believe, helps young scientists, as well as “not young any more” scientists, exchange with each other and have a new idea decoding and controlling inflammatory diseases.
Kensuke Miyake
President of MMCB2019
Professor, University of Tokyo