The 1993 Keystone symposium on the Molecular biology of human pathogenic viruses is designed to bring together the major current contributors in a wide variety of fields in Virology and which are of significance in human health. The objective of the meeting is to maximize the exposure of the speakers with the audience and to bring together in an environment which permits maximum time for discussion scientists in a wide range of fields which impinge on Virology. The fields and topics to be discussed include several presentations in each one of the following areas: (1) Protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid structures as they relate to viral gene expression and replication, (2) Gene function and replication of RNA viruses, (3) Gene function and replication of Large DNA viruses, (4) The synthesis of viral nucleic acids, (5) Viral gene regulation, (6) Viral Oncogenes and their function, (7) entry, intracellular transport and sorting of viruses and viral gene products, (8) Molecular basis of latency, (9) novel aspects of the epidemiology of human viruses, (10) viral vectors for vaccines and for targeting specific cells, (11) the present status of unconventional viruses infecting humans. The virus families to be presented include polioviruses, influenza and parainfluenza, coronaviruses, hepatitis B, C and delta, cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex viruses, Epstein Barr virus, vaccinia, papillomaviruses, adenoviruses and retroviruses including HIV, HTLV-1, and ALV. In addition, the arrangement of the conference will permit selection of abstracts with significant new data for oral presentation, presentation of posters, and the organization of workshops dealing with vaccines, chemotherapy and other topics. It is expected that by bringing together the major contributors in each field as well as the opportunity to include into the final program additional speakers who have made significant new contributions, the conference will correct a major deficiency in the communication of scientific problems and accomplishments caused by the fragmentation of the various fields of virology due to the specialized problems and tools unique to each virus family.
