ABSTRACT
Background: Many patients have uncontrolled asthma despite available treatments. Most of the new asthma therapies have focused on type 2 (T2) inflammation, leaving an unmet need for innovative research into mechanisms of asthma beyond T2 and immunity. An international group of investigators developed the International Collaborative Asthma Network (ICAN) with the goal of sharing innovative research on disease mechanisms, developing new technologies and therapies, organising pilot studies and engaging early-stage career investigators from across the world. This report describes the purpose, development and outcomes of the first ICAN forum. Methods: Abstracts were solicited from interdisciplinary early-stage career investigators with innovative ideas beyond T2 inflammation for asthma and were selected for presentation at the forum. Breakout sessions were conducted to discuss innovation, collaboration and research translation. Results: The abstracts were categorised into: 1) general omics and big data analysis; 2) lung-brain axis and airway neurology; 3) sex differences; 4) paediatric asthma; 5) new therapeutic targets inspired by airway epithelial biology; 6) new therapeutics targeting airway and circulating immune mediators; and 7) lung anatomy, physiology and imaging. Discussions revealed that research groups are looking for opportunities to further their findings using larger scale collaboration and the ability to translate their in vitro findings into clinical treatment. Conclusions: Through ICAN, teams that included interdisciplinary early-stage career investigators discussed innovation, collaboration and translation in asthma and severe asthma research. With a combination of fresh ideas and energetic, collaborative, global participation, ICAN has laid a firm foundation and model for future collaborative global asthma research.
ABSTRACT
PREMISE: Understanding how environmental stress affects the strength of mutualisms is critically important given observed and projected environmental changes. In particular, the frequency and duration of drought have been increasing worldwide. We investigated how water availability affects plant traits that mediate a pollination mutualism. METHODS: For butterfly-pollinated Phlox drummondii, we determined how moisture availability affects flower size, nectar volume, and nectar sugar amount. Furthermore, we explored the role that local adaptation may play in responses to moisture availability by including plants collected from regions that differ in aridity. Finally, we determined whether responses of plant populations to selection may differ under drought by calculating heritability of traits under control and dry conditions. RESULTS: Flower size was generally smaller in dry plants than in control plants. Early in the treatment period, nectar volume and sugar were higher in dry plants than in control plants for plants from both arid and wetter regions. With prolonged dry treatment, nectar volume and sugar remained higher only in plants from the arid region. Heritability of floral traits was lower for water-limited plants than for control plants. CONCLUSIONS: Plant investment into pollination mutualisms under environmental stress may depend on the extent to which populations are already locally adapted to such conditions, suggesting that mutualism may remain strong, at least in arid regions. However, decreases in heritability under water-limitation suggest that responses to selection imposed by pollinators may be low, even if drought-adapted plants maintain production of rewards to pollinators.
