2010 Molecular Biology of Hepatitis B Viruses Meeting

描述（由申请人提供）：大约25%的地球人口，20亿人，已经感染了B肝炎病毒（HBV）。约有3.6亿人患有慢性感染。慢性HBV导致每年约600，000人死亡，主要是肝衰竭、肝硬化和肝细胞癌。除了显著的发病率，急性HBV感染与胰腺癌相关。大约有1500万HBV患者同时感染了丁型肝炎病毒，这会增加肝衰竭和癌症的机会。尽管有疫苗可供使用，但由于约10%的无应答率以及由于成本和其他问题而导致的疫苗利用不足，新的感染继续出现。对于慢性HBV感染者，疫苗不具有治疗作用。可用的抗病毒方法是昂贵的，很少清除感染，并可能导致严重的反弹时，治疗终止。该提案要求提供资金以支持将于2010年10月9日至13日在台湾台北举行的2010年B型肝炎病毒分子生物学会议。B型肝炎会议是一个真正的国际社会的研究人员集中在HBV和密切相关的HDV的论坛。该会议将首次在东南亚举行，那里多达20%的人口患有慢性HBV。2010年将是由Harold Varmus和Jesse Summers组织的第一次HBV会议25周年。从那时起，HBV会议向病毒学界介绍了一系列持续的广泛进展。由于如此多的科学进步来自竞争、合作和讨论，因此可以说HBV会议为这些进步做出了贡献。因此，基础研究和HBV/HDV研究人员之间的科学交流必须继续下去，年度HBV会议是可能发生这种情况的场所。2010年的会议将延续这一传统，强调在两次海报会议、10次口头会议、一次嗜肝DNA病毒结构生物学研讨会以及关于先天免疫反应和泡沫病毒科（一种逆转录病毒属，具有一些明显的特征）的主题演讲中进行讨论和建立网络。乙型肝炎病毒样特性）。由于地理位置的关系，我们与中央研究院合作，尽量减少会议的费用。此外，B型肝炎基金会自2005年以来一直在行政上支持这一会议，为组织会议和宣传会议提供了工作人员，特别是向少数群体代表人数不足的大学提供了工作人员。为了让初级和少数民族的研究人员参与，从美国国立卫生研究院的支持，以帮助支付会议费用的初级科学家被要求。还需要对会议材料和组织职能提供有限的支助。2010年B型肝炎病毒分子生物学会议是该系列会议的第26届，是汇集了来自世界各地的B型肝炎病毒（HBV）和丁型肝炎病毒（HDV）领域的基础科学家的权威会议。HBV是全球和美国的主要公共卫生问题，约有20亿人感染HBV，其中3.6亿人慢性感染，每年约有60万人死于HBV和HBV/HDV诱导的肝衰竭、肝硬化和肝细胞癌。该会议是一个重要的和国际公认的平台，用于交流HBV和HDV感染基础研究的信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Approximately 25% of the earth's population, 2 billion people, have been infected by Hepatitis B Virus (HBV). Approximately 360 million people suffer from chronic infection. Chronic HBV contributes to the deaths of some 600,000 people annually mainly by liver failure, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. In addition to significant morbidity, acute HBV infection is correlated with pancreatic cancer. Approximately 15 million HBV victims are co-infected with Hepatitis Delta Virus, which can increase the chance of liver failure and cancer. New infections continue to arise, despite the availability of a vaccine, due to the ~10% non-response rate and underutilization of the vaccine due to cost and other issues. For those with chronic HBV the vaccine is not therapeutic. The available antiviral approaches are expensive, rarely clear the infection, and can lead to a serious rebound when therapy is terminated. This proposal requests funds to support the 2010 Molecular Biology of Hepatitis B Viruses Meeting to be held in Taipei, Taiwan from October 9 -13, 2010. The Hepatitis B meeting is a forum for the truly international community of researchers focusing on HBV and the closely associated HDV. For the first time this meeting will be held in Southeast Asia, where as much as 20% of the population has chronic HBV. 2010 will mark the 25th anniversary of the first HBV meeting, organized by Harold Varmus and Jesse Summers. Since then, the HBV meeting has introduced a continuous series of broad-reaching advances to the virology community. Because so much scientific progress arises from competition, collaboration, and discussion, it can be argued that the HBV meeting has contributed to these advances. It is, therefore, imperative that basic research and the scientific exchange among those studying HBV/HDV continue and the annual HBV meeting represents the venue at which this can occur. The 2010 meeting will continue in this tradition by emphasizing discussion and networking in two poster sessions, 10 oral sessions, a workshop on the structural biology of hepadnaviruses, and keynote addresses on innate immune response and spumaviridae (a retrovirus genus with some distinctly HBV-like properties). Because of its location, a great effort has been made to minimize the cost of the meeting by working with the Academia Sinica campus. Furthermore, the Hepatitis B Foundation which has administratively supported this meeting since 2005, making its staff available for organizing the meeting and publicizing it, especially to universities with large numbers of underrepresented minorities. In order to allow the participation of junior and minority investigators, support from the NIH to help defray the meeting costs of junior scientists is requested. Limited support for meeting materials and organizational functions is also needed. The 2010 Molecular Biology of Hepatitis B Viruses Meeting, the 26th in the series, is the definitive meeting that brings together basic scientists in the field of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) and Hepatitis Delta Virus (HDV) from around the world. HBV is a major global and US public health problem with approximately 2 billion individuals infected by HBV, 360 million chronically, resulting in an annual rate of approximately 600,000 deaths due to HBV and HBV/HDV-induced liver failure, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The meeting is a critical and internationally well-recognized platform for exchange of information in basic research on HBV and HDV infections.