During the 23rd annual North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference (NACFC) Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D, the new NIH director who led an international effort to map the human genome and co-discovered the gene responsible for cystic fibrosis, will address more than 3,000 leading scientists and clinicians from around the world.
Held in Minneapolis from Oct. 15 through the 17, the conference comes at a pivotal point in the history of cystic fibrosis. For the first time, drugs that aim to treat the basic genetic defect in CF have reached Phase 3 clinical trials. Past NACFC confrences have fueled this progress, and helped life expectancy for people with CF to double over the past 25 years.
Cystic fibrosis affects about 30,000 children and adults in the United States and causes life-threatening lung infections and premature death. Ten million people are unknowing carriers of the faulty CF gene. Fifty years ago, most children with CF died before reaching elementary school. Today, because of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, supported drug research and care, people with CF are living into their 30s, 40s and beyond.
