10th-12th Conferences: Drug Abuse/Immunomodulation/AIDS

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a proposal to fund the 10th, 1lth, and 12th Conferences of the Society on Neuroimmune Pharmacology (SNIP). The next (10th) SNIP Conference will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico from March 24-28, 2004 while the other meetings will be held Fall, 2005 and 2006 respectively. The purpose of these meetings is to explore the nature of the capacity of drugs of abuse to modulate the neuroimmune axis. Symposia will be presented which cover a broad range of scientific issues, with an emphasis on the mechanistic basis for the modulation of host resistance to certain infectious agents, including HIV. The presentations, selected by the SNIP Conference Program Committee, will include a discussion of the most recent advances in basic, clinical, and epidemiologic research into the area of the neuroimmunopharmacology of drugs of abuse with a special emphasis on translational research. Topics at the 10th Conference will include: basic research dealing with issues of biochemical signaling pathways and molecular mechanisms of drug-induced immunomodulation; clinical studies dealing with the nature of the host-parasite interactions in HIV-infected drug-abuse populations; epidemiological analysis of the association of drug abuse with neurodegeneration following HIV infection. Since training of young scientists is a critical goal of the Conference, young investigator awards will be given to approximately a dozen graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who will present their research findings at the meeting. In addition, a symposium is planned to permit the oral presentation by 5-6 young scientists at a prominent time during the meeting. To publicize the results of the Conference, the chairs of each symposium will write a review of the topics covered in their session, which will then be combined with short papers from each presenter in the session. The six chapters will then be peer-reviewed and, upon acceptance, published as a volume of the Journal of Neuroimmunology. The Conference Committee has been structured to assure of ethnic and gender diversity among both the speakers and participating scientists. The Society has established a web site, <www.snip. org>, which will be used to advertise the conference and to report on significant results presented at the meeting. The combination of the web site, and a brochure mailing should guarantee wide dissemination of information regarding the meeting, and guarantee publicity for the published results.