30th Annual Symposium on Nonhuman Primate Models for AIDS

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We are requesting funds to partially cover the cost of planning, organizing, publicizing and hosting the 30th Annual Symposium on Nonhuman Primate Models for AIDS, hosted by the Southwest National Primate Research Center, Texas Biomedical Research Institute. We anticipate that the symposium will be held October 24-27, 2012, at The Westin Riverwalk Hotel in San Antonio, Texas. This meeting is the only forum that exclusively encompasses the most recent scientific advances in AIDS research utilizing nonhuman primate models. The latest findings in primate pathogenesis, immunology, genomics, virology, vaccine development, and therapeutics will be presented. More than 300 scientists from the United States and other countries are expected to attend. The symposium program will include five half-day scientific sessions and a poster session. An invited speaker will give a keynote address on scientific approaches and concerns regarding the AIDS pandemic. A Scientific Program Committee of sixteen members representing a broad geographic and institutional distribution will review submitted abstracts in a blinded fashion and assign oral or poster presentations for each of the scientific sessions; committee members include leaders in the field from a variety of scientific disciplines. Criteria for selection of oral presentations wil include scientific relevance of the topic as well as originality and quality. The sessions will address the following areas: Virus-host Interactions/Genomics; Natural Host/New Models; Pathogenesis/Early Events; Therapy/Microbicides; and Vaccines/Immunology. An invited Chair will give a state-of-the-art presentation to open each session; a co-Chair will moderate the session and entertain questions; and ten scientists will give oral presentations rigorously selected from submitted abstracts. Authors giving talks will be invited to submit their presentations in manuscript form for publication in the special conference issue of the Journal of Medical Primatology. A poster session will include meritorious presentations that cannot be accommodated in one of the platform sessions. The conference will include an opening reception, a reception accompanying the poster session, and an evening banquet at a convenient and enjoyable San Antonio location. In addition to any R13 grant support, registration fees and corporate sponsorship will be collected to defray costs and fund the symposium. The symposium will offer an educational outreach training session with local high school science teachers; the session will provide strategies and course materials for teaching about HIV/AIDS and biomedical research, particularly research using animal models. The 2012 meeting was first announced at the October 2011 meeting in Seattle, and follow-up invitations will be distributed in early spring 2012. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE (provided by applicant): HIV and AIDS represent a critical threat to public health in the United States and internationally. This annual symposium contributes to expanding the knowledge base that will ultimately result in a vaccine to prevent transmission of HIV and treatments for those currently living with AIDS.