The IPBS organized the EMBO workshop “Mechanisms of Regulation of Citrullination in Health and Disease” in Toulouse from July 8 to 11, 2024
This hybrid EMBO workshop was organized by Dr. Priyanka Sharma, with co-organizers Dr. Michel Simon from Infinity, Toulouse, and Dr. Maria Christophorou from the Babraham Institute, U.K., along with our communication officer, Ms. Francoise Viala, and the head of the IPBS International Cooperation Office, Dr. Isabelle Saves. This meeting was supported by IPBS, the Toulouse Cancer Foundation, the “structure fédérative de recherche en Biologie et en Santé de Toulouse” (SFR B2S), Infinity, Paul Sabatier University – Toulouse III, the Company of Biologists, and our industrial sponsors, Abcam, Cayman, Starlab, and QIMA.
The workshop brought together leading international experts from various fields, including epigenetics, structural and cellular biology, immunology, cancer biology, autoimmunity, and neurobiology, all of whom share a common interest in citrullination and its functional implications in human diseases. It was a significant effort by the scientific community to highlight the need to understand the regulatory mechanisms of citrullination—a post-translational modification of proteins that remains relatively obscure—in numerous biological functions implicated in multiple diseases, including inflammatory diseases, neurological disorders, and several cancers.
The workshop brought together approximately 85 participants from 26 countries, including significant representation from Europe, U.S.A., and Asia, and promoted interdisciplinary discussions to foster collaboration and advance the research theme. Notably, there was strong participation from young Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers from various countries.
The main highlights of the meeting included discussions on the biological functions of citrullination, its role in autoimmunity and cancers, extracellular traps of neutrophils, expulsion of chromatin, and the development of new chemical tools for studying citrullination. We featured a fantastic lineup of speakers, including two keynote addresses: the first by Professor Paul Thompson from UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts, titled ‘Functional Role of Citrullination in Human Diseases,’ and the second by Professor Li Yang from the Center for Cancer Research at NIH in Bethesda, United States, titled ‘Uncovering Nuclear Expulsion of Tumor Cells: Mechanisms of Apoptosis and Metastatic Outgrowth.’ Additionally, the event included twenty-three other national and international speakers. Sessions were enriched by ten selected short and flash talks, two poster sessions for ‘meet the speaker’ events, and several social networking opportunities.
Dr. Gilles Favre, Director of the Toulouse Cancer Foundation, kindly joined us to support excellence in science by awarding the best short talk and poster awards to young scientists.
