The long-term objective is to organize a series of """"""""International Conferences on Drug Research in Immunologic and Infectious Diseases"""""""" under the auspices of the New York Academy of Sciences. The first such conference will be on """"""""Antifungal Drugs - Their Synthesis, Preclinical and Clinical Evaluation"""""""". The proposed conference on antifungal drugs, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on October 8-10, 1987, will be the first ever of its kind and will provide a broad international forum of scientists to reflect, review and set new directions for research in the field of fungal infections and antifungal drugs. The proposed conference will be a 3-day event divided into 5 sessions, namely, (1) Design, Synthesis and Structure-Activity Relationship Studies of Antifungal Agents, (2) Antifungal Substances of Natural Origin and Related Derivatives, (3) Mode of Action of Antifungal Agents, (4) Preclinical Evaluation of Antifungal Drugs, and (5) Clinical Evaluation of Antifungal Drugs. As seen from the topics to be discussed, the proposed conference will cover the broad areas of design, synthesis and structural elucidation of new antifungal agents, their mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics and metabolism, general pharmacology (including in vitro and in vivo testing), the effects on the immune functions and toxicology of antifungal drugs. The clinical delivery systems, chemoporphylaxis and early diagnosis of fungal infections. Fungal infections (both systemic and dermatophyte) are increasing sharply worldwide. Deep-seated mycoses are beginning to create serious threats in certain populations of patients, such as cancer. with the ever increasing application of immunosuppressive therapy, as well as the emergence of AIDS, more and more opportunistic fungal infections and their early diagnosis are turning into a major clinical problem. Regarding the present scientific status of antifungal drug research, there is a virtual explosion of information in the synthesis and screening of novel antifungal agents. The mechanism of action of these agents has also been elucidated, and new studies on preclinical and clinical evaluation and drug delivery systems are being considered. The resistance toward antifungal drugs and the role of host defense mechanisms are being explored, as well as new methodology for early diagnosis of fungal infections. We anticipate that by the time the conference is held much more scientific information will be available and discussed by the invited speakers.
