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Successful Fundraiser Spurs Planning of Scientific Workshop

Many thanks to you, our loyal WDA donors, for making our 2011 Direct Appeal a huge success! In the letter, Alex and Others Like Him Need YOUR Help Now!, mailed last August, we asked that you help us to raise at least $50,000 by December 2012 so that we could make this important meeting a reality. Well my friends, you did it…and more!

This has allowed us to accomplish much of the preliminary planning already this year. Workshop organizers, Svetlana Lutsenko PhD, Professor of Physiology, Johns Hopkins University; Mary L. Graper, President, Wilson Disease Association; Dominik Huster, MD, Head, Gastroenterology and Oncology, Deaconess Hospital, Leipzig; Stephen G Kaler, MD, Senior Investigator, Molecular Medicine Program, NICHD, NIH; Dennis Thiele, PhD, George Barth Geller Professor, Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center; and Michael Schilsky, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and of Surgery, Yale University Medical Center, and Medical Director, Yale-New Haven Transplantation Center have identified the following goals for the meeting:

Objective: To bring together leading clinical experts and basic scientists working in the area of human copper metabolism; summarize recent research advances that have potential impact on diagnosis and treatment of human copper disorders; identify main translational challenges that require active research efforts to improve clinical outcomes in patients with disorders of human copper metabolism.

Anticipated Outcome: The participants will discuss latest research developments in the area of human copper homeostasis; identify the most challenging issues in the diagnosis and treatment of human disorders of copper metabolism. It is anticipated that such focused workshop will facilitate active collaboration/information exchanges between clinical and research laboratories. We will also initiate search for innovative approaches to cross-integrate the clinical and basic science aspects into training programs for young generations of physician-scientists and PhDs working in the field of copper and trace element metabolism.

A preliminary program is being developed and will be submitted to NIH in April, by Dr. Lutsenko, along with a grant application seeking additional funding. It is hoped that the NIH institutes NIGMS, NIDDK, and NINDS will support this important event. The anticipated date of the meeting is March or April 2013 at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

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