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，已经感染了乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）。大约3.6亿人患有慢性感染。慢性乙肝病毒每年导致约60万人死亡，主要是由于肝功能衰竭、肝硬化和肝细胞癌。急性HBV感染除了显著的发病率外，还与胰腺癌相关。大约1500万乙肝病毒受害者同时感染丁型肝炎病毒，这可能增加肝功能衰竭和癌症的机会。尽管有疫苗，但由于约10%的无反应率以及由于成本和其他问题疫苗利用不足，新的感染继续出现。对于慢性乙肝病毒感染者，疫苗没有治疗作用。现有的抗病毒方法价格昂贵，很少能清除感染，并且在治疗结束后可能导致严重的反弹。本提案请求资金支持将于2010年10月9日至13日在台湾台北举行的2010年乙型肝炎病毒分子生物学会议。乙型肝炎会议是一个真正的国际社会研究人员关注HBV和密切相关的HDV的论坛。该会议将首次在东南亚举行，该地区多达20%的人口患有慢性乙型肝炎病毒。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影响广泛的进展。由于如此多的科学进步源于竞争、合作和讨论，可以说乙肝病毒会议促进了这些进步。因此，继续开展HBV/HDV研究人员之间的基础研究和科学交流是当务之急，而HBV年度会议则是实现这一目标的场所。2010年的会议将延续这一传统，通过两场海报会议、10场口头会议、一个关于肝病毒结构生物学的研讨会以及关于先天免疫反应和spumaviridae（一种具有明显hbv样特性的逆转录病毒属）的主题演讲来强调讨论和交流。由于地理位置优越，我们与中央研究院校区合作，尽量减少会议费用。此外，乙型肝炎基金会自2005年以来一直在行政上支持这次会议，使其工作人员能够组织会议并宣传会议，特别是在有大量少数民族的大学。为了允许初级和少数民族研究者的参与，请NIH提供支持，以帮助支付初级科学家的会议费用。还需要对会议材料和组织职能提供有限的支助。2010年乙型肝炎病毒分子生物学会议是该系列会议的第26次会议，是汇集来自世界各地乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）和丁型肝炎病毒（HDV）领域基础科学家的决定性会议。HBV是一个主要的全球和美国公共卫生问题，约有20亿人感染HBV， 3.6亿人慢性感染，导致每年约60万人死于HBV和HBV/ hdv引起的肝功能衰竭、肝硬化和肝细胞癌。该会议是在乙型肝炎病毒和乙型肝炎病毒感染基础研究方面交流信息的一个重要的、国际公认的平台。

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.