This conference grant application requests funds to partially cover the cost of planning, organizing, publicizing and hosting the 19th Annual Symposium on Nonhuman Primate Models for AIDS. The symposium will be held November 7-11, 2001 at the Caribe Hilton Hotel and Conference Center in San Juan, Puerto Rico and will be hosted by the New England Regional Primate Research Center (NERPRC), Harvard Medical School and the Caribbean Primate Research Center, University of Puerto Rico. This meeting has become the premier forum for the presentation and exchange of the most recent scientific advances in AIDS research utilizing the NHP model. The latest findings in pathogenesis, primate immunology, virology, vaccines and therapeutics will be presented. It is anticipated that more than 300 scientists from the US, Puerto Rico and other countries will attend. The symposium will encompass four half-day scientific sessions and three workshops. The sessions will be: 1) Immunology, 2) Pathogenesis, 3) Virology and 4) Vaccines/Therapeutics. The three workshops will be: 1) Genetics, 2) Detection of cell mediated immune responses and 3) Advances in in vivo imaging. 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. The workshops will consist of a panel of invited speakers who will present followed by open discussion. In addition, there will be invited keynote and banquet speakers to address scientific approaches and concerns regarding the global AIDS crisis and related issues of public health. A Scientific Program Committee consisting of ten members will review abstracts and select those for oral versus poster presentation for each of the 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 platform sessions. The conference will also include an opening reception on the day of arrival, an evening poster session with accompanying reception and an evening banquet with a topical speaker.
