28-29 July 2022, Alpine Medicine Campus, Davos-Wolfgang, Switzerland

Humans are exposed to a variety of toxins and chemicals every day. According to the epithelial barrier hypothesis, exposure to many of these substances damages the epithelium, the thin layer of cells that covers the surface of our skin, lungs and intestine. Defective epithelial barriers have been linked to a rise in almost two billion allergic, autoimmune, neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases. The scientific community sees this as one of the three major threats to humanity, such as global warming and climate change, virus infection pandemic, such as COVID and Ebola.

Local epithelial damage to the skin and mucosal barriers lead to allergic conditions, inflammatory bowel disorders and celiac disease.

There is a need to continue research into the epithelial barrier to Experimental models should be developed and validated to monitor the trafficking of environmental antigens to inform approaches for the prevention, early intervention and development of novel therapies.

You can expect two exciting days with renowned scientists and interesting discussions.

Chairs: Prof. Dr. Cezmi A. Akdis, Prof. Dr. Ioana Agache

Topics

• Development of allergy & autoimmunity
• Molecular control of epithelial barrier integrity
• Factors that induce epithelial barrier leakiness
• Novel techniques to investigate epithelial barriers
• Epithelial barrier and immune response
• Microbiome and epithelial barriers
• Air pollution asthma and impact of treatments
• Epithelial cells and viral infections
• Novel ways of epithelial barrier and microbiome regulation

Speakers and their talks

Ioana Agache  Epithelial inflammation in the asthmatic lung

Cezmi Akdis The epithelial barrier hypothesis

Isabella Annesi-Maesano Air pollution asthma and allergy in the exposome era

Eran Elinav Molecular control of the gut epithelial barrier integrity

Tari Haahtela  The biodiversity hypothesis

Marek Jutel Asthma and the impact of biological treatments on microbiome and epithelial barrier

Yasutaka Mitamura Single cell and visium spatial imaging of atopic dermatitis lesions

Hideaki Morita Inhaled laundry detergents induce eosinophilic airway inflammation through IL-33 and ILC2 activation

Kari Christine Nadeau Immune response in barrier leaky individuals

Oscar Palomares Novel molecular regulation of dendritic cells and epithelial barrier

Harald Renz Model of epithelial barrier and microbiome

Milena Sokolowska  Epithelial cell responses in COVID-19 and rhinovirus infections

Claudia Traidl-Hoffman Microbiome and epithelial barrier

Erika von Mutius The hygiene hypothesis

Mario Zaiss Gut barrier and rheumatoid arthritis

We look forward to seeing you there!