Project description:The 21st annual Western Canadian Gastrointestinal Cancer Consensus Conference (WCGCCC) was held in Calgary, Alberta, 20-21 September 2019. The WCGCCC is an interactive multi-disciplinary conference attended by health care professionals from across Western Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba) involved in the care of patients with gastrointestinal cancer. Surgical, medical, and radiation oncologists, pathologists, radiologists, and allied health care professionals such as dietitians and nurses participated in presentation and discussion sessions to develop the recommendations presented here. This consensus statement addresses current issues in the management of hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) cancers.
Project description:Myocyte enhancer factor 2 C (MEF2C) is a transcription factor that plays a central role regulating cell differentiation, proliferation, survival and apoptosis. MEF2C has been implicated in each of the most recent GWAS of cognitive ability (CA) and educational attainment (EA). Animal studies have indicated that knockout of Mef2c interferes with healthy development of brain regions associated with cognitive function, e.g. hippocampal dentate gyrus, neocortex. Furthermore, mutation/deletion of MEF2C can cause severe intellectual and developmental disability. We therefore hypothesised that genes regulated by MEF2C would be associated with cognitive function. We created a set of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) based on an RNA-seq study that captured the transcriptional changes in mouse adult brain that result from early embryonic deletion of Mef2c in cortical and hippocampal excitatory neurons. This mouse DEG list was converted to human orthologues (n=1052) and tested for enrichment of genes associated with 1) CA, and 2) EA, using MAGMA and recent GWAS summary statistics for each phenotype. We also performed hypergeometric tests to investigate if the DEGs were enriched for current primary intellectual disability (ID), autism, and loss-of-function (LoF) intolerant (i.e. highly constrained) genes. We then used Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) to explore functional pathways implicated by the MEF2C DEGs. The DEGs were significantly enriched for CA (p=1.08e-07) and EA (p=9.88e-09) genes; along with ID (p=0.008), autism (p=0.001) and LoF intolerant (p=5.55e-21) genes. The top functions IPA predicted to be decreased from these DEGs are ‘development of neurons’ (p=5.41e-38, z-score=-2.0) and ‘formation of cellular protrusions’ (p=1.02e-28, z-score=-2.1). These findings indicate that genes influenced by MEF2C are highly constrained and contribute to cognitive function and neurodevelopmental disorders with severe cognitive deficits.
Project description:After two years of conferences on a virtual platform due to the COVID-19 pandemic, finally, the 19th annual meeting of the Interuniversity Institute of Myology (IIM) has returned to the heart of central Italy, in Assisi, an important cultural hub, which boasts a wide range of historic buildings and museums. This event brought together scientists from around the world providing a valuable opportunity to discuss scientific issues in the field of myology. Traditionally, the meeting particularly encourages the participation of young trainees, and the panel discussions were moderated by leading international scientists, making this a special event where young researchers had the opportunity to talk to prestigious scientists in a friendly and informal environment. Furthermore, the IIM young researchers' winners for the best oral and poster presentations, became part of the IIM Young Committee, involved in the scientific organization of sessions and roundtables and for the invitation of a main speaker for the IIM 2023 meeting. The four keynote speakers for the IIM Conference 2022 presented new insights into the role of multinucleation during muscle growth and disease, the long-range distribution of giant mRNAs in skeletal muscle, human skeletal muscle remodelling from type 2 diabetic patients and the genome integrity and cell identity in adult muscle stem cells. The congress hosted young PhD students and trainees and included 6 research sessions, two poster sessions, round tables and socio-cultural events, promoting science outreach and interdisciplinary works that are advancing new directions in the field of myology. All other attendees had the opportunity to showcase their work through poster presentations. The IIM meeting 2022 was also part of an advanced training event, which included dedicated round tables and a training session of Advanced Myology on the morning of 23 October, reserved for students under 35 enrolled in the training school, receiving a certificate of attendance. This course proposed lectures and roundtable discussions coordinated by internationally outstanding speakers on muscle metabolism, pathophysiological regeneration and emerging therapeutic approaches for muscle degenerations. As in past editions, all participants shared their results, opinions, and perspectives in understanding developmental and adult myogenesis with novel insights into muscle biology in pathophysiological conditions. We report here the abstracts of the meeting that describe the basic, translational, and clinical research and certainly contribute to the vast field of myology in an innovative and original way.