This application for funding is to support expenses for the 2016 20th Annual Woods Hole Immunoparasitology Meeting (WHIP), which brings together principal investigators, students and postdoctoral fellows from around the world who are in the field of immunoparasitology. The 2016 (20th) meeting will be held on April 18 - 21, 2016. The annual gathering of scholars in this field was established in 1997 with the intent to provide a collegial meeting place for scientists to exchange ideas in this important field. The meeting averages 125 to 150 participants every year. While there are other meetings where senior principal investigators in this field present their data, the focus of this meeting is to provide a forum where graduate students and postdoctoral fellows present their work to each other and established investigators. The meeting also aims to provide the opportunity to highlight new junior faculty in the field. The location was chosen because of the strong association of the Marine Biology Laboratory (MBL) and the field of parasitology. This relationship began more than 20 years ago with the establishment of the annual summer course, Biology of Parasitism, and with the annual Molecular Parasitology meeting held in the fall at the MBL. It is close to laboratories on the east coast, and accessible via direct flights to Boston from around the world. Over 85% of the talks at the WHIP meeting will be given by either graduate students or post-doctoral fellows, making this a unique meeting in the field. In addition to the oral presentations, all of the students and post-doctoral fellows have the opportunity to present their work in poster sessions. Thus, both in oral talks and poster sessions students and post-doctoral fellows in the field of immunoparasitology gain valuable experience in presenting their data, as well as contacts that will be useful for advancing their science and their careers.
The Woods Hole Immunoparasitology Meeting (WHIP) brings together scientists who study many neglected tropical diseases of the world, and the parasitic diseases endemic in the United States. The exchange of information and ideas that occur at this meeting will advance the development of new treatments for these diseases.
