This conference grant (R13) application requests funds to partially cover the cost of planning, organizing, publicizing and hosting the 16th Annual Symposium on Nonhuman Primate Models (NHPM) for AIDS. The symposium will be held October 7-10, 1998 at the Colony Square Hotel and Conference Center in Atlanta, Georgia and will be hosted by the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center (YRPRC), Emory University, Atlanta, GA. This meeting has become a premier forum for the presentation and exchange of the most recent scientific advances in AIDS research utilizing the nonhuman primate model. The latest findings in pathogenesis, primate immunology, vaccines, and therapeutics will be presented. It is anticipated that more than 300 scientists from the United States and abroad will attend. The symposium will encompass five consecutive half-day scientific sessions, each devoted to a different theme. These will be: 1) AIDS-associated Infections; 2) Primate Immunology; 3) Pathogenesis I: Molecular Biology; 4) Pathogenesis II: Nonhuman Primate Models; and 5) Vaccines/Therapeutics. Each session will have an invited Chair, who will give a 30-minute state-of-the-art presentation to open the session; and a Co-Chair, who will moderate the session and entertain questions. In addition, there will be an invited Keynote Speaker and Banquet Speaker to address scientific approaches and concerns regarding the global AIDS crisis and related issues of public health. A Scientific Program Committee consisting of eleven members will review abstracts and select those for oral vs. poster presentation for each of the five scientific sessions. Committee members will include leaders in the field from a variety of scientific disciplines. Criteria for selection of oral presentations will include relevance of the topic as well as originality and quality of the information contained in the abstract. Those giving talks will be invited to submit their presentations in manuscript form for publication in the Journal of Medical Primatology. A poster session will include meritorious presentations that cannot be accommodated in one of the five platform sessions.
