This R13 conference grant application requests funds to partially support the costs to plan, organize, publicize and host the 34th Annual Symposium on Nonhuman Primate Models for AIDS. This symposium will be hosted by members of the Tulane National Primate Research Center (TNPRC), and will be held on October 11-14, 2016 at the Westin New Orleans Canal Place Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana. In addition to the funds re- quested in this R13 proposal, costs for running the symposium will be obtained from registration fees paid by conference participants, as well as by contributions from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The overall format of the symposium will consist of an evening reception and registration followed by two and a half days of scientific presentations by invited speakers, and a poster session. The ?Keynote Address? will be given by Dr. Joseph (Mike) McCune and a mid-conference banquet reception will be held at the Nation- al World War II Museum. Abstracts of all oral and poster presentations as well as selected full-length papers will be published in the Journal of Medical Primatology (JMP) to represent the latest results from HIV/AIDS re- search using nonhuman primates (NHP). Additions to this year's agenda include late-breaker abstracts and display of posters throughout the symposium time period. The scientific portion of the meeting will consist of a combination of platform presentations and poster ses- sions with each session devoted to a specific area of AIDS research. Each session will be led by an invited Chair who will give a 30-minute presentation to open the session, and a Co-Chair who will moderate the ses- sion and discussion. Criteria for selection of the abstracts will be based on the originality and quality of the content. A poster session and reception will be convened to include meritorious presentations that cannot be accommodated in one of the five oral platform sessions. All individuals giving platform or poster presentations will be asked to submit their presentations in manuscript form for publication in a special issue of the Journal of Medical Primatology by Dr. Ronald Veazey who will serve as Guest Editor for the special issue that has been devoted to publishing abstracts and presentations from this Annual Symposium since 1989. The principal objective of the 2016 symposium is to continue to serve as the only scientific forum dedi- cated to NHP models for AIDS and dissemination of the latest research findings and ideas developed from these models. The ultimate goal is to utilize the knowledge gained from these crucial NHP studies to better understand how HIV and SIV cause disease. As is true for many scientific meetings, exchange of the latest experimental data allows attendees to modify their own experimental designs to optimize the chance of suc- cess, reduce costs and ensure that NHPs are used in the best research possible. In addition, new collabora- tions are often initiated. This cross-fertilization also facilitates translational research, and in recent years, at- tendees have included some of the most prominent HIV researchers in the field.
HIV continues to be a major global challenge for HIV-infected patients, their families, and healthcare systems, and for the >35 million HIV-infected individuals worldwide, there is an urgent need for an HIV vaccine that confers long-term protective efficacy against new infections. This annual symposium will support and initiate exchange of information and foster collaborations for the development of innovative HIV vaccines a n d therapies, with particular emphasis on discussions between clinicians and researchers to identify ways to optimize animal modeling in ways that most impact clinical care.
