2010 Molecular Biology of Hepatitis B Viruses Meeting

描述(申请人提供)：约25%的地球人口，即20亿人感染了乙肝病毒(乙肝病毒)。约有3.6亿人患有慢性感染。慢性乙肝每年导致约60万人死亡，主要死于肝功能衰竭、肝硬变和肝细胞癌。除了显著的发病率外，急性乙肝病毒感染还与胰腺癌有关。大约有1500万乙肝患者同时感染丁型肝炎病毒，这会增加发生肝功能衰竭和癌症的几率。尽管有疫苗可用，但由于约10%的无反应率和疫苗因成本和其他问题而未得到充分利用，新的感染仍在继续出现。对于那些患有慢性乙肝的人来说，疫苗不是治疗性的。现有的抗病毒方法昂贵，很少清除感染，并且在治疗终止时可能导致严重反弹。这项提案要求资金支持将于2010年10月9日至13日在台湾台北举行的2010年乙肝病毒分子生物学会议。乙肝会议是关注乙肝病毒和密切相关的HDV的真正国际研究人员的论坛。这次会议将首次在东南亚举行，那里高达20%的人口患有慢性乙肝。2010年将是哈罗德·瓦默斯和杰西·萨默斯组织的第一次乙肝会议25周年。从那时起，乙肝病毒会议不断向病毒界介绍了一系列影响广泛的进展。由于如此多的科学进步是从竞争、合作和讨论中产生的，可以说，乙肝病毒会议对这些进步做出了贡献。因此，当务之急是继续基础研究和研究乙肝病毒/丁型肝炎病毒的人之间的科学交流，而一年一度的乙肝病毒会议是进行这一交流的场所。2010年的会议将延续这一传统，在两次海报会议、10次口头会议、一个关于庚型核糖核酸病毒结构生物学的讲习班以及关于先天免疫反应和Spumaviridae(一种具有某些明显类似乙肝病毒特性的逆转录病毒属)的主旨发言中强调讨论和联网。由于它的地理位置，我们非常努力地通过与中央研究院校区合作来最大限度地降低会议成本。此外，自2005年以来一直在行政上支持这次会议的乙肝基金会，安排其工作人员组织会议和宣传会议，特别是在少数族裔人数较少的大学。为了允许初级和少数族裔调查人员参与，要求美国国立卫生研究院提供支持，以帮助支付初级科学家的会议费用。对会议材料和组织职能的支持也是有限的。2010年乙肝病毒分子生物学会议是该系列的第26次会议，是汇聚来自世界各地的乙肝病毒(乙肝)和丁型肝炎病毒(HDV)领域基础科学家的权威会议。乙肝病毒是全球和美国的主要公共卫生问题，约有20亿人感染乙肝病毒，其中3.6亿人慢性感染，每年约有60万人死于乙肝病毒和乙肝病毒/HDV引起的肝功能衰竭、肝硬变和肝细胞癌。这次会议是一个重要的、国际公认的交流乙肝和丁型肝炎病毒感染基础研究信息的平台。

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.