This grant (R13) application requests funds to partially cover the cost of planning, organizing, publicizing and hosting the 26th Annual Symposium on Nonhuman Primate Models for AIDS. The symposium will be held December 9-12, 2008, at The Ritz-Carlton, San Juan Hotel, Spa & Casino in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The meeting will be cohosted by the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Caribbean Primate Research Center. This meeting is the 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 primate pathogenesis, immunology, genomics, virology, vaccines and therapeutics will be presented. It is anticipated that approximately 300 scientists from around the world will attend. The symposium will encompass five half- day scientific sessions and a midday poster session. The scientific sessions will be: immunology, virology, vaccines, genetics, and translational medicine. Each session will have an invited Chair, a scientific leader in the field, who will give a 30- minute state-of-the-field presentation to open the session. The Chair will also moderate the session and manage speaker questions. In addition, Dr. Edmundo Kraiselburd, the Director of the Caribbean Primate Research Center, will open the conference with a keynote speech commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Cayo Santiago research center. A Scientific Program Committee, consisting of eight-ten members drawn from the Wisconsin Primate Center and other institutions will review abstracts and assign oral or poster presentations 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. University of Wisconsin-Madison Conference Services will work with a local Organizing Committee of Wisconsin Primate Center administrators and scientists to handle arrangements and logistics for the symposium. Feedback from the participants will be obtained through written questionnaires or oral comments to members of the organizing committee. This format has been successfully followed using NCRR support for the previous symposia. ? ? The principal objective of this symposium is to serve as a scientific forum for the dissemination and exchange of new research findings, ideas and directions by an international group of scientists whose research focuses on the study of experimental immunodeficiency virus infections, i.e., human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) and recombinant simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) in nonhuman primate models. The ultimate goal is to utilize the knowledge gained from these crucial nonhuman primate studies to better understand how HIV and SIV cause disease, facilitating the development of new methods for the treatment, control and prevention of AIDS in human populations. ? ? ?
