ABSTRACT Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled From First Breath: Lung Development, Infection, Repair and Aging, organized by Drs. Carla Kim, Benjamin Singer and Nan Tang. The conference will be held in Snowbird, Utah from April 23 - 26, 2023. Lung diseases represent leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Beginning with antenatal development, the lung undergoes changes throughout the life course because of aging, as well as in response to infection and other injurious stimuli. There exist knowledge gaps in how individual cell populations coordinate and respond to these changes in states of health and disease over time. Therefore, this conference was designed to address how specific cell populations contribute to the formation and regeneration of the lung over the life course, as well as to examine metabolism, epigenetics, stress responses, and cell-cell interactions as features that control lung biology and how control mechanisms change over stages of life. This program will also aim to understand how emerging technologies and models will elucidate fundamental mechanisms of lung health and disease, and finally, how to articulate how the host immune response to infection determines reparative and regenerative processes. As a result of this meeting, attendees will have a more comprehensive view of dynamic mechanisms that drive pulmonary biology as it relates to health and disease as well as the newest approaches with which to understand these concepts. Finally, this conference will be held with another Keystone Symposia Conference, “Inflammation in the Lung: Friend or Foe in Viral Infections?” This pairing will allow participants to bridge the gap between classical antiviral responses carried out by innate and adaptive immune cells, and the involvement of other lung cells such as epithelia and stroma cells, and to deepen the understanding on how these cells interact. Ultimately, this Symposium will impact the field of lung biology by bringing together interdisciplinary groups of scientists that will synergize to propel discovery of mechanisms underlying lung health and disease.

PROJECT NARRATIVE Lung diseases are multifactorial in origin, including infections, tobacco smoking and other risk factors including air pollution. Some of the most common lung diseases include asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary fibrosis, pneumonia, pulmonary hypertension and lung cancer. Aging is a major risk factor for lung diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis, COPD and lung cancer, yet the mechanisms by which age results in disease susceptibility remain elusive. This conference will bring together a group of diverse scientists from different areas of lung cell biology together to create synergy, promoting faster progress toward our ultimate goal of understanding susceptibility to and treatments for lung disease.