WELCOME

It is our pleasure to welcome you to Free Radicals in Brazil 2011 - I São Paulo Advanced School (ESPCA) on Redox Processes in Biomedicine and the VII Meeting of the SFRBM-South American Group. This event is organized as a forum of advanced discussions on the study of cellular redox processes concerning chemistry, biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology and medicine. The design prioritizes an integrative and translational approach, with emphasis on biochemical and cellular mechanisms of redox processes associated with human disease.

A particular feature of this event is the I São Paulo Advanced School (ESPCA) on Redox Processes in Biomedicine (from August 13th to 21st, 2011). This international scientific forum is primarily sponsored by FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo – São Paulo State Research Agency) with the goal of raising the opportunity of high-level and in-depth discussions involving selected trainees which will receive travel and lodging support (up to 100 students, at least half from countries other than Brazil). Additional trainees and investigators are also strongly invited to apply and to participate in this event. We expect that ESPCA will help attendees to improve on their capacity to focus in depth into scientific questions in the redox field of interest, to extend their capacity to think big and search for advanced new horizons, and to more strongly focus into mechanisms of biochemical and cellular processes, rather than on phenomenological data gathering. The ESPCA overlaps and merges with the VII Meeting of the SFRBM-South American Group (from August 17th to 21st, 2011), which has been quickly establishing itself as a great international forum for the integration of research performed not only by south American investigators but also by investigators around the world. From August 18th to 20th, the program will feature half-a-day abstract sessions covering oral presentations of selected abstracts and poster sessions. Everyone is encouraged to send abstracts, which will be peer-reviewed.

The main tone of our discussions during ESPCA/South American Meeting will be not only the advanced review of basic aspects of redox biology but also a strong emphasis on state-of-the-art conceptual and analytical approaches. Novel directions that will be discussed in depth include, among others, redox systems biology, novel mechanisms of thiol reactivity, structure-function relations of redox-related proteins, novel sensors for subcellular localization of oxidant production. A Workshop held on Wednesday August 17th will focus, on innovative fashion, on Quantitative Aspects of Redox Biology. Overall, we expected that such advanced discussions will foster the investigator´s interests into the study of original and precise methods to understand redox processes in complex systems, taking quantitation up to best available limits. The panel of speakers has been carefully planned to account for these goals. The meeting venue has been planned to provide a relaxed informal atmosphere that will foster close interaction between speakers, investigators and trainees. We warmly wellcome everyone to enroll in this event, which we are sure will be a rewarding experience for all those involved !

Ohara Augusto
Francisco RM Laurindo

Chair, ESPCA

Chair, VII Meeting of the South American Group of the SFRBM