2015 Tropical Infectious Diseases Gordon Research Conference & Seminar

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 DESCRIPTION (provided by the applicant): This application requests partial support from the NIH for a meeting on "Tropical Infectious Diseases: Challenges, Opportunities and Successes" as part of the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) and Gordon Research Conference (GRC) series to be held in Galveston, Texas, March 7-8 and March 8-13, 2015, respectively. The broad and long-term goal of the conference is to increase our understanding of disease epidemiology and host-pathogen-vector interactions with the aim of developing new insights for controlling Tropical Infectious Diseases (TIDs). The specific aims of this meeting are to convene 38 speakers representing critical areas of tropical disease research with a total of 150 participants for a seven-day conference in a relatively isolated, relaxed setting. The GRS program will target doctoral/postdoctoral trainees and open with a keynote presentation and have two scientific sessions for participant presentations, a manuscript writing skill building session as well as a poster session. The GRC program will follow with two keynote presentations addressing present global needs for infectious disease research. The conference will focus on diseases of high medical importance as well as a group of poverty promoting diseases termed Neglected Tropical Disease (NTDs) with high disease burden. The sessions will discuss the major challenges, new opportunities and the recent successes achieved for control of some of the TIDs. The sessions will cover arboviral, bacterial and parasitic diseases as well as host-vector-pathogen interactions. There will also be thematic sessions on the status of vaccines for TIDs, drug and insecticide resistance management for malaria control and the status of disease elimination campaigns against some of the major NTDs (lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, trachoma and onchocerciasis). The sessions will consider recent basic discoveries in the areas of pathogen genomics, cell biology and immunology in the context of the most current findings from field based epidemiologic studies and intervention trials. The conference will close with two keynote presentations that provide outstanding examples of continuing burden and challenges for TID control and opportunities for TID research and training. Afternoon poster sessions will permit all participants to contribute to these topics. The significance of this application is thatthe Gordon Research Seminar and Conference on TIDs provides a forum that brings together junior and senior multidisciplinary members of the international research community on tropical diseases. The intent is to promote discussions from basic to applied questions and to generate 'cross-fertilization\rquote among different specialties and fields of knowledge while establishing a growing community of scientists interested in TIDs. The health relatedness of this application is that the discussions will define the important questions in basic science and epidemiology as they relate to the development of new strategies to control the most important tropical diseases affecting over one sixth of the world's population. ing progress toward the control and elimination of TIDs.