The UAB Center for AIDS Research is one of the original Centers for AIDS Research (CFARs) funded by the National Institutes of Health. Each year and on a rotating basis, a Directors Meeting is hosted by one of the NIH funded CFARs. This meeting presents a unique opportunity in which the Centers Directors and key personnel are gathered to discuss and reevaluate the role of the Centers and NIH in addressing key issues of HIV/AIDS research. The Center Directors meeting, thus represents a unique and valuable informational resource which is generally not available at broad-based regionally accessible meetings. In order to take advantage of this unique opportunity, the applicant proposes to hold an annual symposium in conjunction with the annual Directors Meeting. The general title of this annual symposium would be Recent Advances in AIDS and HIV Research. The specific topic to be discussed or presented each year would rotate amongst 5 more specific areas: Year 1 - Pathogenesis and Experimental Therapeutics of HIV; Year 2 - Vaccine Development and Strategies for Implementation; Year 3 - Prevention and Behavioral Intervention in AIDS, Year 4 - Pre-Clinical Therapeutics and Drug Development, and Year 5 - AIDS and HIV, the Global and International Impact. Speakers for these symposia would be chosen from CFAR Directors, leading investigators in the field, as well as outstanding junior faculty investigators whose area of research is relevant to the focus of the symposium. The first symposium entitled Recent Advances in Pathogenesis and Experimental Therapeutics of HIV and AIDS is scheduled to be held in conjunction with the CFAR Directors Meeting at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (October 25-26). The symposium is scheduled for Tuesday, October 27, 1998. The meeting will be advertised nationally and will provide CME credit for attending physicians.
