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SARANAC LAKE - Most people don't spend a lot of time thinking about their mucosal surfaces.

But 50 scientists from Europe, Asia and the United States have traveled to the Trudeau Institute to do just that this weekend.

"Mucosal Immunity: Creating a Balance Between Barrier and Function at the Mucosal Frontier" is the title of a two-day conference that began Friday and continues today.

It may sound like an obscure topic, but organizers of the conference say gaining a better understanding of the body's mucosal surfaces, like the lungs and the gastrointestinal tract, is critical in learning how to fight diseases like influenza.

"Mucosal surfaces are the major point of entry for most infectious diseases," said David Woodland, the institute's director. "But the problem we have is, although these surfaces are the frontier against infectious disease, we don't understand how they work. We don't understand the immune system at these surfaces."

With H1N1 influenza (swine flu) making headlines on a daily basis, organizers said the timing of the conference couldn't be better.

Woodland, an influenza vaccine researcher, said there's no way to know for certain how serious H1N1 will be.

"It could be relatively non-serious, or it could be very severe," Woodland said. "We don't really know."

Asked if the H1N1 vaccine that's now being developed and distributed is safe, Woodland said it will "undoubtedly be very safe" because it's being made by the same methods as the regular seasonal influenza vaccine.

"The choice is between, 'Do I take a very safe vaccine, or do I risk getting a very serious case of influenza,'" Woodland said. "It's hard to tell because we don't know how this pandemic will unfold. It looks like we'll have a pandemic of moderate to low severity. But that could change."

Dr. Bali Pulendran, an immunologist from Emory University in Atlanta and one of the conference attendees, said the attention paid to H1N1 has a bit of a silver lining for researchers.

"What this underscores is, we truly need to understand our immune systems and how to manipulate and harness the immune systems so we'll be better prepared to make vaccines and drugs as we face newer, deadlier, emerging pathogens," Pulendran said.

"It also raises awareness in the general public, and that's very important for political support," added Dr. Andrea Cooper, a Trudeau scientist who's organizing the conference.

Woodland said he's confident that one vaccine will eventually be developed to battle the many different kinds of flu.

"I hold the view that in the not-too-far-distant future, we will have such a thorough understanding of how the human body works and interacts with infectious agents that we will be able to do incredible things in terms of controlling disease," he said.

Cooper said the conference is just the kind of event that can help further that understanding.

"In order to make progress, we need to have people face to face discussing their ideas directly," she said. "We're in an electronic age, but you can't make the kind of progress you need to make without actually having that personal interaction."

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Contact Chris Knight at (518) 891-2600 ext. 24 or cknight@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.