Building on a legacy that has lasted for a quarter of a century and now sponsored by the Endocrine Society, the 1st International Conference on Steroid Hormones and Receptors will be held next month at University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center in Albuquerque. Endocrine News talks to conference chairs Eric R. Prossnitz, PhD, and Carol A. Lange, PhD, about what attendees can expect, topics to be covered, and why the sessions should appeal to both endocrine scientists and clinicians.
From October 16 to October 18, the University of New Mexico will host the 1st International Conference on Steroid Hormones and Receptors (SHR 2024) in Albuquerque, N.M. The meeting was co-organized and is being co-chaired by incoming Endocrine Society President Carol A. Lange, PhD, of the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center in Minneapolis, and Eric R. Prossnitz, PhD, of the University of New Mexico, with help from additional national and international co-organizers, Zeynep Madak-Erdogan (University of Illinois), Matthias Barton (UZH place) and Brian Harvey (RCSI place).
Building on 25 years of highly successful conferences, SHR is an international biomedical conference that aims to explore state-of-the-art advances in steroid hormone and receptor functions, both rapid and genomic, in various aspects of biology and medicine in terms of normal physiology and pathophysiology.
Endocrine News reached out to Lange and Prossnitz to learn more about the meeting – the excellent program and the buzz surrounding it, as well as its history and organization – and the duo responded jointly over email to properly convey their excitement.
Endocrine Society Steps In
In May 2021, after a delay due to COVID-19, Lange, Prossnitz, and their colleagues held a joint virtual research conference co-organized by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and the International Committee on Rapid Responses to Steroid Hormones (RRSH), as the “Steroid Hormones and Receptors in Health and Disease Conference.”
Previously, both FASEB and RRSH organized their own steroid conferences over several decades, usually in alternating years, but in 2018, the groups decided to organize their first joint conference to be held in the United States in 2020. “With the success of that conference, with speakers from the U.S., Europe, and Asia and the recognition that the actions of steroids involve an interplay between rapid/non-genomic and genomic effects, the current organizing committee sought to organize a ‘new’ meeting in 2024 to highlight all integrated aspects of steroid hormone and receptor action, without making a distinction between ‘rapid’ and ‘chronic’ steroids effects any longer,” Lange and Prossnitz write.
“People should expect the presentation of exciting cutting-edge unpublished research by established leaders in the field as well as new and upcoming stars in the field. The environment will foster small group informal discussions at the conference venue and at meals or coffee breaks during free time. We really look forward to this meeting!” — SHR 2024 conference chairs Eric R. Prossnitz, PhD, and Carol A. Lange, PhD
According to Lange and Prossnitz, the broad field of nuclear receptors used to be represented by a Keystone meeting held every two years. However, Keystone stopped supporting this topic, so the group felt there was a strong need within the field for a nuclear receptor/steroid receptor-focused meeting spanning all health disciplines that could touch upon diverse nuclear receptor actions, and so planning for this smaller, but high-quality steroid receptor-focused conference began “in earnest” in 2023.
“In January 2024, we became aware of the Endocrine Society’s interest in exploring the creation of ‘boutique conferences’ for the research community,” Lange and Prossnitz write. “We were also interested in affiliating our conference with a larger established organization to secure the long-term goals of this conference. In March, the Endocrine Society approved the sponsorship and support of our conference, as we both saw the mutual benefits of cooperating in this venture.”
Vital Information for the Lab and the Clinic
The goal of SHR 2024 is to present and discuss advances in steroid hormone action in biology and medicine, exploring their role in biology, chemistry, pharmacology, oncology, neurology, metabolism, cardiovascular biology, and endocrinology. The conference will feature plenary and keynote lectures, oral presentations and posters by prominent and emerging leaders, as well as trainees in the field. Conference proceedings will be published in Endocrinology, the Endocrine Society’s peer-reviewed premier basic science journal.
Lange and Prossnitz tell Endocrine News that, even though this meeting is geared more toward researchers, steroids and steroid receptors play an important role in the clinic. They point to the recent discussion around vitamin D and drugs that target steroid receptors – such as those used to treat hormone-sensitive cancers – as recent advances.
“Drugs targeting mineralocorticoid receptors have a firm place in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, including heart failure and resistant arterial hypertension,” Lange and Prossnitz write. “New drugs that reduce steroid hormone production are currently in clinical development with the goal to also reduce disease severity and improve survival in these patients.”
Lange and Prossnitz go on to write that in biology, the roles of steroids in diverse biological and physiological functions are constantly growing. They give examples of novel functions in macrophages and other immune cells including leukemia, androgen actions in breast cancer, estrogen action in the endothelium and cardiovascular system and kidney, glucocorticoid actions in breast and prostate cancer, mineralocorticoid receptor action in adipocytes, the actions of multiple steroids and their receptors in neurological function and behavior, and the crosstalk between steroids and microbiome, just to name a few.
“Steroids and their receptors are the targets of a wide range of drugs, and thus critically important to the treatment of both acute diseases and the long-term management of chronic illnesses,” Lange and Prossnitz write. “An improved understanding of their complex actions throughout the body and in disease, beyond the traditional functions they are known for, will lead to novel therapies. Thus, signal pathway and cell/tissue specificity of action will be critical to these advancements and understanding the basic actions of these steroids and their receptors at the most fundamental levels is critical.”
New Collaborations
SHR 2024 will bring together investigators from diverse specialties who share the common interest in understanding steroid receptor actions across a broad spectrum, both under physiological conditions and in disease. “We predict new collaborations will be formed,” Lange and Prossnitz write. “We would like to feature many of our outstanding trainees at this meeting and introduce them to the leaders and mentors in our field as they present their work in posters and short talks and have the opportunity to network during our social hours, at meals, and during other informal breaks.”
“We’re excited about the caliber of speakers that have agreed to participate, but we’re also excited that numerous early-stage investigators and trainees will be in attendance to show off their work and interact with all those at the meeting. This meeting will be a key event for anyone interested in steroid and steroid receptor biology, including their roles in biochemistry, pharmacology, and molecular biology research, as well as in clinical medicine.” — SHR 2024 conference chairs Eric R. Prossnitz, PhD, and Carol A. Lange, PhD
And there’s already excitement among the community. Lange and Prossnitz tell Endocrine News that in addition to the level of enthusiasm in those agreeing to participate, registrations have been pouring in. “We’re excited about the caliber of speakers that have agreed to participate, but we’re also excited that numerous early-stage investigators and trainees will be in attendance to show off their work and interact with all those at the meeting,” Lange and Prossnitz write. “This meeting will be a key event for anyone interested in steroid and steroid receptor biology, including their roles in biochemistry, pharmacology, and molecular biology research, as well as in clinical medicine.”
“People should expect the presentation of exciting cutting-edge unpublished research by established leaders in the field as well as new and upcoming stars in the field,” Lange and Prossnitz continue. “The environment will foster small group informal discussions at the conference venue and at meals or coffee breaks during free time. We really look forward to this meeting!”
Bagley is the senior editor of Endocrine News. He wrote about some of the highlights from ENDO 2024 in the August issue.
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