HIV Biology and Pathogenesis

Keystone Symposia, Silverthorne CO

Investigators

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): ================== NOTICE: THIS ABSTRACT WAS EXTRACTED FROM APPLICATION AND HAS NOT BEEN PROOFED BY AN SRA.WHEN THERE ARE PROBLEMS WITH THE APPLICATION SCANNING PROCESS, THE EXTRACTED TEXT MAY BE INCORRECT OR INCOMPLETE. ================== This proposal is to request support for a Keystone Symposia meeting entitled HIV Biology and Pathogenesis, organized by Thomas J. Hope, Katherine A. Jones and Daniel C. Douek, which will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico from January 12 - 17, 2010. This meeting emphasizes key aspects of the basic virological, cell and molecular biological, and disease aspects of HIV. The focus will be to highlight recent advances in our understanding of HIV/AIDS ranging from the earliest events of transmission, to treatments for infected individuals, to interventions to prevent viral transmission. A major goal of this meeting is to highlight basic research in the study of HIV virology and immunology. The symposium will feature the identification and characterization of cellular factors that play a key role in HIV biology. There is currently a revolution in our understanding of HIV biology based on the identification of such cellular factors. The focus on the mechanism by which newly-identified cellular factors control viral infection, coupled with the unique manner in which different HIV regulatory factors perturb host cell function, makes this symposium is very timely. The new insights provided from studies of viral-host regulatory mechanisms will stimulate discussion and new ideas to advance this research and identify optimal intervention strategies that can be used to treat and prevent HIV infection in the future. HIV continues to be a major world health problem with tens of millions of individuals infected worldwide. There has been great progress in the development of drugs to treat infection with HIV. However, the virus can develop resistance to these therapies, and consequently there is still a great need to develop additional therapies to treat infected individuals. How HIV causes AIDS also remains mysterious. The goal of the HIV Biology and Pathogenesis meeting is to emphasize the basic mechanisms of viral replication and the interplay of the virus with the immune system leading to the development of AIDS.