EUROPIC america 2002: a conference for picornaviruses

EUROPIC会议致力于每两年审查一次与人和动物致病病毒的最大家族之一--小航病科相关的研究进展和未来方向。到目前为止，欧洲微小核糖核酸病毒分子生物学研究小组已经组织了11次会议，它们都在(9)个欧洲国家举行过。虽然这次国际会议的名字来源于大多数与会者的地点和原籍大陆，但会议从一开始就有美国人参加，现在美国人占到了相当大的一部分(占意大利EUROPIC 2000与会者的21%)。出于这个原因，美国人在上一届EUROPIC期间首次被提名在美国组织EUROPIC/America 2002。2002年5月14日至19日，由五名活跃的美国小航海学家组成的小组自愿组织了第一次美国小核糖核酸病毒会议，会议将在马萨诸塞州法尔茅斯的Seacrest度假村和会议中心的科德角举行。这些会议传统上由来自大学、研究中心和工业界的科学家、博士后研究员和研究生参加。事实上，这些会议的特点是年轻研究人员(特别是研究生)所占比例非常高，这一美德具有很高的教育性，并将得到保持。据估计，小核糖核酸病毒每年造成60亿人感染。尽管大多数感染是自限性的，但很大一部分感染会导致严重的人类疾病，如果不是致命的话。此外，新的危险病毒株正在出现(参见最近台湾爆发的一种新的肠道病毒71型)。此外，微小核糖核酸病毒是引起严重动物疾病的原因，例如口蹄疫病毒(FMDW)。除了流行病学、发病机制、结构和复制等主题外，计划在该计划内组织两个研讨会，涵盖当前最感兴趣的主题。第一个将致力于目前肆虐英国的口蹄疫的原因，它对社会的影响，以及预防的可能性。Over将讨论在当前全球根除脊髓灰质炎病毒的历史性影响期间出现的困难(疫苗株的传播、西半球最近爆发的脊髓灰质炎)。

EUROPIC meetings are dedicated to review, every two years, progress and future directions of research related to Picornaviridae, one of the largest families of human and animal pathogenic viruses. So far, eleven previous meetings have been organized by the European Study Group on Molecular Biology of Picornaviruses, and they have all been held in (nine) European countries. Although this international meeting derived its name from the venue and the continent of origin of the majority of the attendees, the meeting has included Americans from the start and Americans now make up a sizeable fraction of attendees (>21% of the participants at EUROPIC 2000 in Italy. For this reason, the Americans were "nominated" during the last EUROPIC for the first time to organize EUROPIC/america 2002 in the US. A group of five active American picornavirologists volunteered to organize the first American picornaviruses meeting, to be held on Cape Cod at the SeaCrest Resort and Conference Center in Falmouth, MA, on May 14-19, 2002. The meetings have been traditionally attended by scientists from universities, research centers and industry, by postdoctoral fellows and graduate students Indeed, they have been characterized by a very large percentage of young investigators (particularly graduate students), a virtue that is highly educational and will be maintained. It has been estimated that picornaviruses cause >6 billion human infections/yr. and although most infections are self-limiting, a very large proportion cause serious if not fatal human disease. Moreover, new dangerous virus strains are emerging (see the recent outbreak of a new strain of enterovirus 71 in Taiwan). In addition, picornaviruses are the cause of serious animal diseases of which foot- and mouth disease virus (FMDW) may be cited as example. Apart from topics of epidemiology, mechanisms of pathogenesis, structure, and replication, it is planned to organize two workshops within the program that will cover topics of greatest current interest. The first will be dedicated to the cause of the foot-and-mouth disease epizootic ravaging England at the present time, its impact on society, and possibilities of prevention. The over will discuss the difficulties (circulation of vaccine strains, recent outbreak of poliomyelitis in the Western Hemisphere) that have emerged during the current, historic effect to globally eradicate poliovirus.