2009 Molecular Biology of Hepatitis B Viruses Meeting

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案旨在申请主办2009年乙型肝炎病毒分子生物学会议所需的资金支持，会议定于2009年8月30日至9月2日在法国图尔卢瓦尔河谷的文奇国际会议中心举行。这是自1985年以来连续举行的年度系列会议的下一次预定会议。本次会议是汇集世界各地乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）和丁型肝炎（丁型）病毒（HDV）领域基础科学家的唯一会议。乙型肝炎病毒仍然是一个主要的全球和美国公共卫生问题。尽管有预防性疫苗，但在世界范围内仍发生许多新的感染，部分原因是一些（10%）接种疫苗的人缺乏免疫反应，但主要原因是由于费用和其他问题导致疫苗利用不足。此外，对于已经慢性感染HBV的3.5亿多人（其中约1500万人同时感染HDV），该疫苗没有任何治疗价值。因此，全世界每年有50万至100万人死于HBV/HDV。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。2009年的会议将继续这一传统，通过10个口头科学会议、2个海报会议以及较少结构化的“网络”时间加强互动和对话。本次会议将特别关注病毒形态发生、病毒进入、宿主-病毒相互作用，并特别强调抗病毒治疗和先天免疫。这将通过一个与免疫相关的主题演讲以及一个以先天免疫为重点的特别讲习班来促进。和往常一样，我们尽了很大的努力把会议的费用降到最低。此外，自2005年以来，乙型肝炎基金会坚定地承诺支持这次会议，为会议的组织提供了一个永久的场所，并为会议的组织和宣传提供了工作人员，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。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is intended to apply for funding support for the expenses necessary to host the 2009 Molecular Biology of Hepatitis B Viruses Meeting, scheduled August 30 through September 2, 2009 at the Vinci International Convention Center, Loire Valley, Tours, France. This is the next scheduled meeting in an annual series that has been held continuously since 1985. This meeting represents the only meeting that brings together basic scientists in the field of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis D (delta) virus (HDV) from around the world. HBV continues to be a major global and US public health problem. Despite the availability of prophylactic vaccines, many new infections occur worldwide, partly because of the lack of an immune response in some (d10%) of the vaccinated people, but mostly because of underutilization of the vaccine, due to cost and other issues. Moreover, for the more than 350 million people already chronically infected with HBV (approximately 15 million of whom are co- infected with HDV), the vaccine is of no therapeutic value. As a result, between 0.5 and 1 million people die of HBV/HDV every year worldwide. 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 2009 meeting will continue in this tradition by enhancing the interaction and dialogue with 10 oral scientific sessions, 2 poster sessions as well as less structured "networking" time. A special focus of this meeting will be on viral morphogenesis, viral entry, host-virus interactions, with a special emphasis on antiviral therapy and innate immunity. This will be facilitated by one immunity-related keynote address accompanying a special workshop focused on innate immunity. As always, great effort has been made to minimize the cost of the meeting. Furthermore, the Hepatitis B Foundation has made a strong commitment to support this meeting since 2005, in terms of providing a permanent home for organizing the meeting and 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.