First symposium on basement membrane draws international audience
More than 100 scientists and students from throughout the United States and 10 other countries attended Vanderbilt University’s first international symposium on basement membranes earlier this month.
The basement membrane is a thin matrix material that surrounds and supports various organs and other soft tissues in the body. It is involved in a wide range of diseases, from diabetes to cancer.
Organized by Billy Hudson, M.D., and Roy Zent, M.D., Ph.D., the symposium featured a keynote address by Karl Tryggvason, M.D., Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, and state-of-the-art presentations by several other internationally known scientists.
Much has been learned over the past 50 years, said Hudson, the Elliot V. Newman Professor of Medicine, Pathology and Biochemistry at Vanderbilt.
“Today we are looking at the function of individual molecules,” he said. “What’s needed (now) is a way to make them … for investigators to study.”