IHV Hosts Ninth Annual International AIDS Meeting
September 24, 2004
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BALTIMORE, MD – The 2004
Annual International Meeting of the Institute of Human Virology will
be held Oct. 31-Nov. 4 at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore, 300 Light St.
This year marks the ninth year the prominent assembly of world-renowned
AIDS researchers has been hosted by the Institute, and follow the tradition
of the "Annual Lab Meeting" that Dr. Robert C. Gallo, founder
and director of the IHV and co-discoverer of the virus that causes AIDS,
organized from the very start of the field of human retroviology in 1980.
The theme of this year's meeting is Translational Research in HIV/AIDS
and AIDS-Related Malignancies.
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Paul Zamecnik |
Sessions will focus on:
- The Origin of HIV to its Pathogenesis and Immune Control
- Molecular Biology and Immune Pathogenesis of HIV
- HIV Entry; Immune Response to HIV
- Hepatitis
- HIV Drug Resistance and the Issues of Delivering Therapy in the Developing
World
- New Approaches to HIV Therapy
- Latency and the Reservoir Problem
- Indirect Effects of HIV-Dependent Apoptosis
- Susceptibility, Progression and Other Epidemiology Considerations
- HIV-Associated Malignancies
- HIV Vaccines
Other highlights of this year's meeting include:
- Presentation of the 2004 IHV Lifetime Achievement Award to Paul Zamecnik,
the molecular biologist who first provided the tools for deciphering the genetic
code and then later was the first to conceive of the successful use of anti-sense
DNA for the highly selective inhibition of gene expression. His work provided
the first hard evidence for transfer RNA, the key piece in the puzzle of how
genetic information in DNA is translated into the specific sequence of amino
acids that gives each protein its distinct molecular identity; and provided
a totally new picture of protein synthesis. He also has been honored with
the Albert and Mary Lasker Award, as well as the National Medal of Science.
- Presentation of the IHV's first-ever Humanitarian Award to Stewart Greenebaum,
a real estate developer who with his wife has founded charitable organizations
with worldwide reach, made countless monetary contributions and devoted hours
of service through leadership and volunteerism. Former chairman of the IHV's
Board of Advisors, he is the first non-scientist to be honored
by the IHV for his contributions to the cause.
- An awards banquet in which the keynote speaker will be Jon Franklin, a Pulitzer-Winning
science writer and well-known pioneer in literary nonfiction. Franklin's books
include The Molecules of the Mind, Guinea Pig Doctors, Not Quite a Miracle,
and Shocktrauma. A former journalist with the Baltimore Evening Sun and Raleigh
News and Observer, Franklin now heads the journalism program at the University
of Maryland.
The IHV's annual meeting was first founded three decades ago by Dr. Gallo when
he headed the Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology at NIH's National Cancer Institute.
The meeting was designed as a venue where basic and clinical researchers could
discuss the latest scientific advances, including often still unpublished date.
Scientific presentations are off the record to media unless approved by the
scientist, though journalists are welcome to attend.
The IHV is a center of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute and
is affiliated with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University
of Maryland Medical Center.
Related Information on IHV.org
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