In a continuing series called “Exciting Biologies” Cell Press, Massachusetts General Hospital and La Fondation Ipsen collaborate to offer annual meetings designed to highlight emerging intersections in biomedical research and promote interactions between scientists from converging disciplines. This third meeting, held in Buenos Aires between the 8th and 10th of October, focused on “Biology in Balance”. It drew together scientists studying various aspects of homeostasis and balance from a diverse range of approaches and disciplines. Homeostasis, a state of balance in the body, actively maintained by complex biological mechanisms is well known in physiology. Thanks to modern biology, the various cellular processes involved in balance are now identified. This third meeting of the “Exciting Biologies” series examined the concept of balance and system robustness and how balance and homeostasis are established and maintained within a cell, tissue, organism, or population. Topics of the various lectures included the mechanisms that maintain balance, how systems adjust balance, how balance can be tipped, and what happens when balance is lost. The meeting was organized by Kenneth R. Chien (Massachusetts General Hospital, USA), Emilie Marcus (Cell Press, USA), Connie M. Lee (Cell Press, USA), Marie Z. Bao (Cell Press, USA), Elena Porro (Cell Press, USA) and Yves Christen (La Fondation Ipsen, France).
In 2007, Cell Press, Massachusetts General Hospital and La Fondation Ipsen came together to create a new series of scientific events: the “Exciting Biologies” – three-day meeting – highlighting some of the most dynamic sectors in biological and medical research. The second meeting in 2008 discussed a particularly current topic: the biology of cognition.