8th Annual North American ABC Workshop

NOVEMBER 18, 2011
This article first appeared in the Fall 2011 PXE MemberGram

The 8th Annual North American ABC Workshop took place September 28th and 29th, 2011 at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, MD. One of the most exciting sessions at the meeting was the series of talks on the second day on the ABCC family of transporters. Moderated by András Váradi of the Institute of Enzymology at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest and Sharon Terry, CEO of PXE International, these were a series of stimulating talks given by Koen van de Wetering, Satish Cheepala, Yueli Sun, Hossein Ardehali, and Gergely Szakacs, as well as Sharon Terry and András Váradi. The topics ranged from work to find the substrate transported by the PXE protein (ABCC6), to the human face of ABCC6, to discussion of experimental results using an FDA-approved drug that had some positive effects in mouse liver, and thus may have future potential for human treatment.

Sharon said, “I have attended this meeting every year. Mike Dean, Senior Investigator in the Human Genetics Section at NCI, does a great job of bringing together young and more mature scientists and giving them the platform to explain some exciting results. I think we are at a tipping point for many of the diseases in the ABC family, and I think these scientists will have some incredible insights into PXE in the coming years.” PXE International supported this meeting, just as we have done most years in the past. Thanks to our generous donors for helping these scientists come together to share what they have learned. This sort of gathering accelerates meaningful research in a dramatic way. Sharon continued, “There is an ABC transporters meeting in Innsbruck, Austria every other year. I am really excited to see what is revealed at that March 2012 meeting."