The HIV Evolution and Dynamics Meeting is a small annual HIV meeting with a ten-year history. This meeting has given people who do data analysis, mathematical modeling, and HIV evolutionary analyses a specific opportunity to come together to discuss new research, both in terms of new studies and their implications, and new analysis tools and methods that could be applied to HIV. Mathematical and statistical aspects of the work can be discussed in greater depth than is possible in the larger HIV meetings, which primarily focus on experimental and clinical presentations. Historically this meeting has alternated venues between Europe and the US, to allow greater access to the meeting for researchers on both sides of the Atlantic. It can be one of the most important meetings of the year for HIV-scientists directly involved in the analysis of data. The meeting draws individuals who model in vivo dynamics and disease progression, global variation of HIV with considerations of the epidemic history, immunology and vaccine strategies, and individuals that study the emergence of drug resistance. The talks and posters range from important new studies that have complex aspects that may be presented more from a traditional view, but are discussed from an analysis perspective; mathematical oriented talks with an opportunity to go into more detail than is appropriate at typical HIV biology meetings; and talks from scientists outside the HIV field who develop new analysis methods that might usefully be brought into the sphere of HIV research. On the order of 100 to 150 scientists attend; this number has depended on the venue in the past. There is ample time for discussion and developing contacts to facilitate and extend ongoing studies, and to initiate new collaborative efforts. The meeting has traditionally been supported by the OAR and the CDC with supplemental funding coming in through industry and the fund raising efforts of the primary organizer in any given year. For the first time, we are asking for continuing, five-year support from NIH-NIAID, starting with the spring 2003 meeting to be held at Lake Arrowhead conference center. The UCSD Office of Continuing Medical Education has offered to support the financial and organizational infrastructure of the conference for the five-year period for which we are requesting funding, and will work directly with the primary scientific organizer regardless of his or her home institution. ? ?
