Day 1 :
Keynote Forum
Philip D Houck
Baylor Scott & White Healthcare, USA
Keynote: Applying laws of biology to men and women: Why is there a young female advantage? Why is it lost?
Time : 10:30-11:05
Biography:
Philip D Houck, MD MSc is a Cardiologist and Associate Professor of Medicine Texas A&M University. Currently, he is working at Baylor Scott & White Healthcare. He started his academic career in Engineering Science at Penn State University and received an MSc in Biomedical Engineering and MD from Northwestern University. He has been retired from the Air Force serving at the Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory, School of Aerospace Medicine, and Wilford Hall Medical Center. His research interests includes weather and myocardial infarction, increasing circulating stem cells with EECP, electrical remodeling of the heart, peripartum immune disease, lymphatics role in decompensated heart failure, and fundamental laws of biology.
Abstract:
Fundamental Laws are not accepted in biological sciences. At present there are no accepted laws of biology. The laws below represent empirical facts. 1. Biology must be consistent with the fundamental laws of physics and chemistry. 2. Life, as opposed to non-living, exhibits negative entropy; developing order out of chaos. The energy to support negative entropy is yet to be defined. 3. The cell is the fundamental unit of biology. 4. The cell must be in homeostasis with the environment. This property allows for Evolution. The environment changes life. 5. There must be a distinction between self and the environment. Immunity and inflammation are the defenses against invaders from the environment and responsible for repair of damaged and senile cells. 6. Electromagnetic information transfer is necessary for development and regeneration. Life, regeneration of tissue will not exist in a non-electromagnetic environment, denervation. Lacking the additional information of the Y chromosome, Law 2 states that women have less entropy than men explaining greater female longevity. The most significant differences between men and women are reflected in law 5. Women, during pregnancy, are able to carry a fetus with foreign antigens. In order to accomplish this feat the immune system must adapt under the influence of sex hormones. The answer to the questions: Why is there a young female advantage? Why is it lost? Is the cyclic response of the immune system to sex hormones? Females lose this advantage after menopause when their immune system becomes similar to a male.
Keynote Forum
Giuseppe d’Annunzio
IRCCS Giannina Gaslini Institute, Italy
Keynote: Wolfram Syndrome: A rare multiorgan disease
Time : 11:25-12:00
Biography:
In 1985 Giuseppe d’Annunzio has completed his degree in Medicine, in 1989 post-graduate School in Preventive Pediatric and Puericulture, and in 1994 post-graduate School in Endocrinology at the University of Pavia. He is the responsible of Regional Center for Pediatric Diabetes, Giannina Gaslini Institute, Genoa. At present he is author/co-author of 104 papers in reputed journals (H index 17), has been serving as reviewer of several journals, and as an editorial board member of repute.
Abstract:
Wolfram Syndrome (WS) is a rare neurodegenerative disease with autosomal recessive inheritance and characterized diabetes mellitus and optic atrophy, followed by diabetes insipidus, deafness and several endocrine and neurological dysfunctions, affecting the central nervous system and including anosmia, ataxia, seizures, nystagmus, gaze palsies, dysartria, dysphagia, psychiatric disturbances, cognitive impairment, neurogenic bladder, central apnoea, neurogenic upper airway collapse myoclonus. The acronym DIDMOAD (Diabetes Insipidus, Diabetes Mellitus, Optic Atrophy Deafness) includes the main clinical characteristics of the syndrome. WS is a rare disease with an estimated prevalence of 1/550.000 of children, and with a carrier frequency of 1/354, and is caused by biallelic mutations of the WFS1 gene located on chromosome 4p16.1 and encoding Wolframin, a transmembrane glycoprotein in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). WFS1 is localized also in the brain and ER stress-mediated cell death could be responsible of neurodegeneration. Mortality is about 65% before age 35, mainly due to respiratory failure or dysphagia secondary to brainstem impairment. The efforts for determining WS natural history have clarified the order of onset of the various clinical symptoms. Noteworthy the molecular complexity of the syndrome, the wide spectrum of associated diseases and the small sample size of patients evaluated made difficult to establish a correlation between genotype and phenotype. Brain atrophy is described in the late stage of the disease, otherwise little is known either about at what stage of the disease neurological abnormalities appear, the role of WFS1 mutations during neurodevelopment, the correlation between neurological phenotype and genotype.