11th ASM Conference on Candida and candidiasis

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DESCRIPTION: Candida is the major fungal pathogen of humans, causing diseases that range from oral and vaginal candidiasis to life-threatening candidemia and invasive disease. The Candida field focuses on a broad spectrum of subjects that relate to epidemiology, drug resistance, infection, host response, vaccines and therapeutics. The Candida and Candidiasis Conference, held every two years, is the premier forum for the presentation of cutting-edge advances and the latest perspectives in these diverse areas. Funds are requested to provide partial support for the 11th Conference on Candida and Candidiasis, which will be held from March 29 to April 2, 2012, in San Francisco, CA. The conference will be sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology, which will provide both management expertise and financial support. The program will be based upon past conferences of the series, which have reliably drawn attendance of over 450 American and International scientists, and have been met with enthusiastic support in participant surveys. This program will include 38 speakers who will be chosen for their expertise in fundamental and/or clinical mycology and 48 speakers who will be selected based on submitted abstracts. This arrangement will provide the flexibility to present cutting-edge advances and to enlist a diverse spectrum of emerging and established community members as speakers. There will be clinical talks about the epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of candidiasis, with speakers carefully prescreened for affability and effectiveness. These talks will be incorporated into sessions that focus on various key aspects of candidal infections, including environmental signaling, systems biology, antifungal agents and resistance, immune recognition, vaccines, morphogenesis, and biofilms. There will be two lunch sessions in which the strengths and weakness of various experimental rodent models of candidiasis will be discussed by both basic scientists and clinicians. In addition, there will be concurrent sessions on fungal metabolism, new technologies, epigenetics, and apoptosis to further encourage productive interaction and discussion. Each afternoon, there will be a poster session so that a total of 250-300 posters will be presented. We are confident that our goals - to present the latest advances in the field, to spotlight achievements of junior scientists (especially women and minorities), to promote synergistic and interdisciplinary interactions, and to provide a venue for community-wide discussion - will be achieved. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Candida is the major fungus that causes infectious disease, affecting AIDS patients, cancer chemotherapy patients, premature infants, and many others. The 12th Conference on Candida and Candidiasis will provide a forum for the Candida research community to present the most recent advances and ideas, covering a broad spectrum of subjects from clinical issues to molecular mechanisms, from growth of the fungus to response of the host. The conference will help chart the course of future research and facilitate the urgent necessity to understand, treat, and prevent disease.