8th annual international discussion meeting on HIV Dynamics and Evolution

For the second time, the Annual Meeting on HIV Dynamics and Evolution will be held in Europe, in Paris from April 27 th until 29th, 2001. This 8th meeting is supported by the National Agency for Aids Research in France (ANRS), the French Institute of Research for Development (IRD), the Office of Aids Research (OAR), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). It is jointly organized by IRD and Institut Pasteur (France).

This meeting gathers a limited number of international researchers to ease debates and exchanges. About 160 scientists, more than half coming from the United States of America, are expected to attend it in Paris. The different aspects of the variability and the evolution characteristics of HIV (natural, under drug effects or related to the immune system) will be presented during nine plenary sessions.

The first session on HIV related viruses will permit to draw up an evaluation of knowledge on the extreme diversity of retroviruses similar to HIV, which naturally contaminate monkeys in Africa and will try to specify the risks of possible new transmissions monkey-humans. Different researchers ( primatologists, epidemiologists, virologists) working in Cameroon, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo will attend this session.

Another session will deal with the crucial problem of the existence of " viral reservoirs " non accessible to treatment for HIV infected persons.

A focus on lessons which can be learnt by the study of other viruses (Ebola, hepatitis C) will constitute the originality of session 5, open to non HIV specialists virologists. This session will also present new analyses on the problems of retroviruses.

The meeting will be held in english.

Program

April 27

Opening remarks : M. Kazatchkine, Head, ANRS, France.

1. Evolution and global variation of HIV and HIV related viruses
chairmen: M. Peeters (IRD, Montpellier, France)
B.Hahn (University of Alabama, USA)

2. HIV evolution and transmission
chairmen: M. Kalish (CDC, USA)
G. Scarlatti (San Raffaelle Scientific Institute , Milan, Italy)

3. HIV evolution and drug resistance
chairmen: M. Wainberg (McGill University , Montreal, Canada)
A.Leigh-Brown (Univ of Edinburgh, G.B.)

April 28

4. Dynamics of non-pathogenic SIV infections in non-human primates
chairmen: M.Müller-Trutwin (Institut Pasteur, France)
M. Feinberg (Emory University,USA)

5. Lessons from other viruses
chairmen: A.Neumann (Bar-Ilan University , Ramat-Gan, Israël)
J.M.Pawlotsky (Hôpital Henri Mondor, Paris, France)

6. Dynamic interactions between HIV and the immune system
chairmen: B. Autran (CH Pitié Salpêtrière, Paris, France)
A.McLean (Oxford University, G.B.)

April 29

7. Modeling of immunological parameters
chairmen: B.Korber (Santa Fe Institute/Los Alamos National Institute, USA)
G. Learn (university of Washington, Seattle, USA)

8. Mathematical modeling of HIV evolution
chairmen: J.Coffin (NCI, Frederick , USA)
A. Vandamme (University of Leuven, Belgium)

9. HIV dynamics in viral reservoirs
chairmen: D.Richman (University of California , San Diego, USA)
A.Perelson (Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA)