The 4th International Conference on Metals and Genetics

The fourth international conference on metals and genetics

Faculty of pharmaceutical sciences, Paris Descartes university
July 21-24, 2008

Numerous biological functions depend on metals. Details of the genetic control of metal metabolism in plants and animals are being discovered. Recent advances in management of human diseases due to disordered metal metabolism have been ushered by discoveries of relevant genes and determining the effects of their mutations. Metals also play an important role in cancer biology, partly because metals interact with DNA and partly because metabolism of metals in cancerous cells presents treatment modalities. A new problem is that environmental contamination with natural or manmade metals poses serious health risks to populations. Recent advances in molecular biology, physics, proteomics, systems biology and clinical medicine further emphasize the delicate balance of metals in health and disease.

The first conference of this series, initiated by Professor Bibudhendra SARKAR at Toronto (Canada) in 1994, was carried out to uncover these relationships. In the next conference, the main topics will be as follows:

* Metal-associated diseases: Molecular and Systemic Biology approaches
* Metals in pharmaceutics and in nutrition
* Characterization and speciation of metal in proteins and biological tissues
* Metals and environmental health implications