Annual Woods Hole Immunoparasitology (WHIP) Meeting

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DESCRIPTION: This application for funding is to support expenses for the 2012 Woods Hole Immunoparasitology Meeting (WHIP), which brings together principal investigators, students and postdoctoral fellows from around the world who are in the field of immunoparasitology. The annual gathering of scholars in this field was established in 1997 by Drs. Edward Pearce (Trudeau Institute) and Phillip Scott (University of Pennsylvania) with the intent to provide a collegial meeting place for scientists to exchange ideas in this important field. The meeting averages 125 to 150 participants every year. While there are other meetings where senior principal investigators in this field present their data, the focus of this meeting is to provide a forum where graduate students and postdoctoral fellows present their work to each other and established investigators. We also aim to provide the opportunity to highlight new junior faculty in the field. The location was chosen because of the strong association of the Marine Biology Laboratory (MBL) and the field of parasitology. This relationship began more than 20 years ago with the establishment of the annual summer course, Biology of Parasitism, and with the annual Molecular Parasitology meeting held in the fall at the MBL. Immunoparasitology covers a broad range of diseases and host species, and at the WHIP meeting diseases discussed include those caused by protozoa (e.g. leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis, toxoplasmosis, malaria) and helminths (e.g. schisotosomiasis, trichuris, filariasis). This meeting will bring scientists togethr to promote a better understanding of the commonalities and differences between the immune responses generated by parasites. Two important aspects of this meeting will be to promote a focus on the parasite in addition to the host, and to bring together scientists working in experimental models and those working on human disease. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The Woods Hole Immunoparasitology meeting brings together scientists who study many of the neglected tropical diseases of the world, and the parasitic diseases endemic in the United States. The exchange of scientific information and ideas that will occur at this meeting will advance the development of new treatments for these diseases.