With this R13 application we request funding to support, in part, the costs for planning, organizing, publicizing, and hosting the 38th Annual Symposium on Nonhuman Primate Models for AIDS. This symposium will be hosted by the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC). It will be held at ?The Nines? hotel located in downtown Portland, Oregon, September 29 - October 2, 2020. Lodging will be offered at the same venue. In addition to the funds requested in this R13 proposal, support will come from registration fees paid by meeting participants and contributions from corporate sponsors. The overall format of the conference will begin with registration and an evening reception on September 29, which will be followed by a keynote address given by Dr. Sharon Lewin, Director of the Doherty Institute and Professor of Medicine, University of Melbourne. There will be two and a half days of scientific presentations driven by both invited speakers and accepted oral abstracts. A poster session will occur on the evening of September 30, and there will be a banquet, tentatively planned for The Portland Art Museum on October 1. A major emphasis for this meeting will be on emerging technologies that can advance research in NHP models of AIDS. Based on this theme, session topics and speakers will be invited to highlight new and cutting-edge technologies in their respective fields. Each session will open with a 25-minute talk by an invited Chair. Remaining session talks will be given by individuals whose abstracts were accepted for oral presentations based on the quality and originality of the submission. There will be an evening poster session for meritorious abstracts that cannot be accommodated in the oral sessions. As is customary for this symposium, all poster and oral abstracts will be published in the Journal of Medical Primatology. ONPRC will also be hosting a pre-symposium meeting for early stage investigators (ESI) on September 29 in conjunction with a Translational ESI conference sponsored by the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) to be held September 28-29 in Portland, Oregon. This meeting will be open to the attendees of a linked ESI Conference sponsored by the HVTN. The ESI attendees and mentors will develop a program focused on networking, grant writing, budgeting and a Q&A with NIH Program Officers. In general, the main objective of the annual symposium is to help disseminate the latest research findings in NHP models of AIDS, while also fostering an environment that will facilitate discussion and exchange of ideas between basic scientists and clinicians, as well as between early stage and established investigators. We believe that bringing together researchers from a wide variety of different backgrounds will generate future collaborations. In all, we hope that the 38th Annual Nonhuman Primate Models for AIDS Symposium will help identify the most effective use of NHP models to better design interventions to prevent or eradicate HIV infection or to maintain long term control of HIV replication in the absence of antiretroviral therapy.
HIV is a global concern and with 37 million people currently estimated to be living with HIV worldwide, there is an ongoing need to develop interventions to prevent and/or cure HIV infection. This annual symposium will provide an environment to promote the exchange of ideas and perspectives, and foster new collaborations among scientists utilizing nonhuman primate (NHP) models for HIV research. A major emphasis of this meeting will be on emerging technologies to accelerate the translation of NHP studies into the clinic.
