Meeting: Special Symposium: Population Biology of Vector-borne Diseases, University of Georgia, February 24, 2018

该奖项将为将于2018年2月24日在佐治亚州雅典举行的媒介传播疾病的种群生物学特别研讨会提供支持。近年来，西尼罗河病毒、基孔肯雅病毒、寨卡病毒等病毒的出现，导致包括美国在内的多个国家出现公共卫生危机。这些新出现的疾病带来的新问题，加上疟疾和登革热等疾病造成的持续破坏，导致媒介传播疾病的研究迅速发展。预计这次研讨会将增进对媒介传播疾病传播、进化和对宿主条件作出反应的机制的理解，并为未来跨学科的合作研究提供催化剂。这将反过来促进媒介传播疾病预测、管理和消除的新战略。申请的大部分资金将用于部分支持介绍科学家的旅费，并向可能面临参与障碍的学生提供旅行奖学金。将努力招募任职人数不足的群体的参与者。本次研讨会讨论的工作将出版为媒介传播疾病的种群生物学，这是牛津大学新出版的传染病生态学和进化系列的第二卷，并将成为该领域唯一的全面综述。病媒传播的动植物病原体是跨越各种学科和视角的关键研究领域。从应用的角度来看，许多病媒传播的病原体会导致严重的疾病，这导致了高昂的经济和社会成本，而从基础的角度来看，病媒生物、病原体和终端宿主之间进化的复杂相互作用为病原体的功能和进化提供了关键的见解。就媒介传播的人类疾病而言，疟疾和登革热的研究仍然是国家的优先事项，而新出现的病毒带来了新的科学问题和实际问题。虽然各种应用治疗措施正在进行中，但许多重要的组织和亚组织问题仍然不清楚，并阻碍了对疾病传播和进化的理解。解决这些问题需要多个科学学科的专业知识和未来研究的综合方法，因此迫切需要一个论坛，将不同学科的科学家和学生聚集在一起，综合信息并为未来的研究制定计划。这次名为“媒介传播疾病的种群生物学”的研讨会将汇聚一批研究媒介传播疾病的顶尖科学家，他们代表多个国家以及工业界和学术界。总的来说，这些演讲者代表了多种观点，包括生物学、生态学、兽医学、昆虫学、流行病学、生物统计学、计算机科学和地理学。这次研讨会将为科学家和学生提供一个论坛，以综合现有的跨学科知识，发展未来研究的愿景，并从综合生物学的角度启动未来合作研究的计划。

This award will provide support for the special symposium, Population Biology of Vector-borne Diseases, which will be held February 24th, 2018 in Athens, GA. In recent years, the emergence of viruses such as West Nile virus, Chikungunya virus, and Zika virus have led to public health crises in several countries including the United States. The new problems introduced by these emerging diseases, coupled with the continued devastation caused by diseases such as malaria and dengue, have led to rapid development in the study of vector-borne diseases. This symposium is expected to result in increased understanding of the mechanisms in which vector-borne diseases spread, evolve and respond to host conditions, as well as provide a catalyst for future collaborative research across disciplines. This will in turn promote new strategies for vector-borne disease prediction, management, and elimination. The majority of the requested funds will be used in partial support of the travel costs for presenting scientists and to provide travel scholarships to students who may otherwise face barriers to participation. Efforts will be made to recruit participants of under-represented groups. The work discussed in this symposium will be published as Population Biology of Vector-borne Diseases, the second volume in the new Oxford series Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases, and will serve as the only comprehensive survey of this field. Vector-borne pathogens of animals and plants are key areas of study across a variety of disciplines and perspectives. From an applied perspective, many vector-borne pathogens cause severe disease, which results in high economic and social costs, while from a fundamental perspective the complex interactions that evolve between vector organisms, pathogens, and terminal hosts have provided key insights on how pathogens function and evolve. In the case of vector borne diseases of humans, studies of malaria and dengue remain national priorities while emerging viruses have introduced new scientific questions and practical problems. While a diversity of applied therapeutic initiatives are in progress, many important organismal and suborganismal questions remain unclear and hinder understanding of disease transmission and evolution. Addressing these questions requires expertise in multiple scientific disciplines and integrative approaches to future research, thus presenting an imminent need for forums that bring together scientists and students across disciplines to synthesize information and plan for future research. The symposium, Population Biology of Vector-borne Diseases, will bring together a group of leading scientists in the study of vector-borne diseases, representing multiple countries and both industry and academic sectors. Collectively, these speakers represent a multitude of perspectives including biology, ecology, veterinary medicine, entomology, epidemiology, biostatistics, computer science and geography. This symposium will provide a forum for scientists and students to synthesize existing knowledge across disciplines, develop a vision for future research, and initiate plans for future collaborative studies from an integrative biology perspective.