Conveners: Thomas Ritz (Southern Methodist University) & Melissa Rosenkranz (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Background & Aims:
Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease that affects close to 350 million people worldwide. As one of Franz Alexander’s “Holy Seven” psychosomatic diseases, it has confounded medical and psychological scientists for a long time. Biomedical research has made strides in recent decades, highlighting roles of airway hyperreactivity, T-helper cell-driven inflammation, epithelial damage, and remodeling of the airways as major factors in the course of the disease. At the same time, research from a psychobiological angle has identified major roles of socioeconomic, behavioral, and experiential factors in the etiology, pathophysiology, and management of asthma, with ongoing efforts to delineate mechanistic pathways that underlie such associations.
This symposium will bring together biomedical and psychosomatic expertise to review the state of current knowledge on asthma in these areas of inquiry, with the goal to stimulate further cross-disciplinary dialogue and synthesis of ideas, and thereby develop an agenda for both future collaborative research and clinical intervention.
Registration Fees:
Member: $75.00
Non-Member: $100.00
Member Trainee: $25.00
*CME and CE will be offered for this meeting.
Topics:
Asthma pathophysiology: Nizar Jarjour (University of Wisconsin), Melissa Rosenkranz (University of Wisconsin), Thomas Ritz (Southern Methodist University)
Asthma development, hygiene hypothesis, & genes and environment: Donata Vercelli (University of Arizona), Rosalind Wright (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai), Paul Forsythe (University of Alberta)
Asthma diversity and disparities: Juan Celedon (University of Pittsburgh), Edith Chen (Northwestern University)
Asthma interoception and dyspnea: Paul Davenport (University of Florida), Andreas von Leupoldt (KU Leuven), Jonathan Feldman (Yeshiva University)
Asthma treatment: Ratko Djukanovic (University of Southampton), Thomas Ritz (Southern Methodist University), Melissa Rosenkranz (University of Wisconsin)