: The symposium, """"""""Emerging Viruses: Disease Models and Strategies for Vaccine Development"""""""" will bring together researchers with diverse expertise in various aspects of emerging and re-emerging viral zoonoses to address important but unexplored issues pertaining to rational vaccine development. UTMB's Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases was recently awarded a grant from the McLaughlin Endowment at UTMB to partially support this conference. The additional funding we seek from the NIH with this grant application will contribute to all the meeting costs, which will ultimately support NIAID's Strategic Plan for Biodefense Research by encouraging productive scientific exchanges among scientists engaged in vaccine development research for diseases caused by zoonotic viruses, including many of biodefense importance. The specific objectives of the conference are: Objective 1. To provide a forum for approximately 150 participants from academic, governmental, and industrial laboratories in the US to foster scientific exchange and share the latest advances on vaccines for viral zoonoses. The program will feature six keynote speakers as well as invited talks by leaders in the field. In addition, short talks by junior investigators and trainees will be chosen from among the submitted abstracts. Objective 2. To present a program that captures the most significant advances in the field of vaccine development for emerging and re-emerging viral diseases, including new platform technologies, the use of adjuvants, vaccines for both prophylaxis and as therapy, and the evaluation of responses to vaccines, including the elucidation of protective immune mechanisms. Central to discussions of strategies for advancing vaccine research will be in-depth sessions on the human pathology of viral diseases and whether currently available animal models are adequate for simulating human disease. Objective 3. To promote interactions among junior-level scientists and well-established researchers, accomplished primarily through poster presentations. Selected junior investigators will also be chosen to present their research in podium sessions. Objective 4. To provide travel grants for junior-level scientists, including graduate students, postdoctoral associates, and early-stage faculty members, who are engaged in research on emerging and re-emerging viral zoonoses. Half of the awards will be designated for minorities, women, or persons with disabilities. A travel grant committee will review all applications and make the determination as to how the awards are selected. Funds will be provided as reimbursements for air travel by coach class, hotel, ground transportation, and meeting registration. Objective 5. To provide an opportunity for women, members of under-represented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to engage and actively participate in a meeting that showcases their work and facilitates interactions with other scientists in their fields. The conference will be held on October 23 and 24, 2012 at the Moody Gardens Hotel and Conference Center in Galveston, Texas. Tours of the Galveston National Laboratory will be offered following the meeting. Public Health Relevance: Viruses from nature are an ever-increasing threat to human and animal health, and they effectively circumvent political boundaries and other borders that define our global societies. The """"""""Emerging Viruses: Disease Models and Strategies for Vaccine Development"""""""" symposium will offer an opportunity for vaccine researchers and virologists to gather to discuss their latest research, including the latest developments in the use of animals as disease models. Over the two-day meeting, the most recent advances will be emphasized, and networking opportunities will allow for a productive interchange among well established and younger scientists that will contribute to the improvement of biodefense and public health.
Viruses from nature are an ever-increasing threat to human and animal health, and they effectively circumvent political boundaries and other borders that define our global societies. The Emerging Viruses: Disease Models and Strategies for Vaccine Development symposium will offer an opportunity for vaccine researchers and virologists to gather to discuss their latest research, including the latest developments in the use of animals as disease models. Over the two-day meeting, the most recent advances will be emphasized, and networking opportunities will allow for a productive interchange among well established and younger scientists that will contribute to the improvement of biodefense and public health.
