2025 Lung Development, Injury and Repair Gordon Research Conference and Gordon Research Seminar

The 2025 Lung Development, Injury and Repair Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and associated Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) will be held July 26 - August 1, 2025 at the Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco, Italy. The theme for the 2025 Lung GRC is "Promoting Health Across the Lifespan in Developing and Aging Lungs". This meeting comes at a critical time, as the ascent of chronic respiratory diseases in the aging population, including COPD/emphysema, asthma and pulmonary fibrosis, has heightened our need to understand, and ultimately counteract, the dysfunctional remodeling that follows lung injuries. This growing global burden of lung disease continues unabated annually worldwide affecting hundreds of millions of people according to the World Health Organization. While investments in basic scientific research continue to accelerate substantial strides forward in understanding molecular, cellular, and tissue level mechanisms driving respiratory diseases, translation of these findings toward early detection and effective repair and restoration of lung function in chronic respiratory diseases remains a major barrier. Thus the 2025 Lung GRC topics span basic and translational aspects of the inductive developmental interactions that inform adult lung repair and regeneration. Meeting this challenge requires the integration of knowledge from experts spanning lung development and aging, including the fields of molecular biology, cell biology, complex physiology, and multiomic systems biology, as well as experts immersed in the diagnosis and treatment of human disease. The Lung GRC/GRS 2025 is uniquely positioned to bring this diversity of expertise together to disseminate and debate the latest findings in the fields of lung development, injury, and repair, and to formulate the new ideas, collaborations and approaches that will be needed to translate biologic discoveries toward meaningful advances in respiratory medicine. A major emphasis of the Lung GRC and GRS is to strengthen the pipeline of scientists and clinicians focused on lung development, injury, and repair. Funds from this R13 will be specifically targeted to promote participation in the conference by graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early career investigators. The unique attributes of this GRC (alternating between the USA and Europe, open scientific exchange, secluded location to maximize engagement, tradition of sharing unpublished data, abundant time for discussion) and GRS (close trainee interactions with peers and mentors) provide an opportunity for formal and informal interactions and collaborations that are likely to have significant and sustained impact on the field. The 2025 Lung Development, Injury and Repair GRC/GRS will thus promote accelerated progress in understanding and treating chronic lung diseases and help to ensure the vitality and growth of a broad pipeline of clinicians and scientists capable of addressing the burden of lung diseases.