The Scientific Meeting of the International Leptospirosis Society will be held on November 27 ? December 01, 2017 at the Palmerston North Convention Centre in New Zealand. The site of the 2017 meeting was selected because of the pioneering work on leptospirosis at Massey University. The Scientific Meetings of the International Leptospirosis Society (ILS) have been the only international conferences devoted exclusively to the field of leptospirosis research. One of the strengths of the ILS Scientific Meeting is the wide range of scientific, diagnostic, and clinical expertise and interests of the attendees, all linked by a central interest in leptospirosis. A strong effort was made to develop an innovative program for the 2017 ILS Scientific Meeting including the One Health theme, which is especially relevant for this Meeting given the inextricable links between human and veterinary health for a zoonosis such as leptospirosis. A first for the 2017 conference is the offering of three workshops of three days each on epidemiology, microbiology, and genomics, representing a major training opportunity for attendees. As in past conferences, we will include speakers chosen from submitted abstracts in each of the conference's sessions. Each of the previous International Leptospirosis Society Scientific Meetings has been highly successful, receiving high praise by attendees, forging new collaborations, providing a forum for presenting state-of-the-art research on these bacteria, and helping to set new research directions. As in previous conferences, we expect attendance at the 2017 conference to include faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and industrial scientists. A broad spectrum of scientists representing different research interests, geographic locations, and seniority will be invited to attend. For 2017, special efforts will be made to ensure strong attendance of young investigators (graduate students, post-docs, and junior faculty), women, and underrepresented minorities. The oral and poster presentations are organized to provide many opportunities for discussion, the exchange of ideas, and development of collaborations. Funding from the National Institutes of Health is requested to partially offset the travel and registration expenses of the participating graduate students, fellows, and junior faculty members from resource poor countries.
Leptospirosis has emerged as a globally important infectious disease threat in both developing and developed countries. Rapid advances in the field have taken place in recent years, with the integration of genomics into molecular epidemiology and outbreak investigation. NIAID support for the Scientific Meeting of the International Leptospirosis Society will advance the field in supporting the most promising trainees and by facilitating communications among the internationally-based researchers in this field.
| Levett, Paul N; Picardeau, Mathieu (2018) International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Leptospiraceae. Minutes of the closed meeting, 28 November 2017, Palmerston North, New Zealand. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 68:3362 |
