Announcements

** Vaccines: San Francisco Conference, Sept. 30 - October 2

The First International Conference on Engineered Vaccines for
Cancer and AIDS will be held September 30 - October 2, 1993,
at The Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco. It is sponsored by the
Clinical Research Program at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital.
(Also see note below on free public forum, October 1.)

Ten sessions are scheduled: Vaccinology; Vectors; Cancer
Antigens; AIDS Antigens; Correlates of HIV Immunity;
Adjuvants; Animal Models, Cancer Vaccines; Animal Models,
AIDS Vaccines; Clinical Trials, Cancer; and Issues in AIDS
Vaccine Clinical Trial Design and Implementation. Many of the
nation's leading vaccine experts will be speaking.

The registration fee is $450. For more information, call
Vaccines Conference, 619/565-9921.


** Vaccines: Free Public Forum, San Francisco, October 1

A community forum on AIDS vaccines will be held Friday,
October 1, 7:00 p.m., at the UCSF Laurel Heights Conference
Room, 3333 California Street, San Francisco. Scheduled
speakers include David Chernoff, M.D., Associate Director,
Biocine Clinical Research, Chiron Corporation; Patricia Fast,
M.D., Ph.D., Chief, Clinical Development, VRDB/Division of
AIDS/NIAID; Don Francis, M.D, Medical Monitor for gp120
prophylaxis vaccine program, Genentech; Bonnie Mathieson,
Ph.D., Chief, Basic Research Section, Division of AIDS/NIAID;
and Robert Schooley, M.D., Head of Division of Infectious
Diseases, University of Colorado Health Science Center. Most
of them will be in town for the vaccine conference (see
announcement above). Brenda Lein of Project Inform, and Mark
Bowers of HIVCare (of St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco)
and of ACT UP/Golden Gate Treatment Issues Committee, will
also participate.

This forum is sponsored by HIVCare, Project Inform, ACT
UP/Golden Gate, and AIDS TREATMENT NEWS.


** National AIDS Update Conference, Oct. 19-23, San Francisco

The 6th National AIDS Update Conference will be held October
19-23, at the San Francisco Civic Center. This is not
primarily a research conference (although some new
information is usually presented), but a continuing-education
training conference for health-care professionals (including
physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, program
administrators, government and community leaders, hospital
service and planning managers, etc.) and persons with
HIV/AIDS. It is sponsored by more than 20 organizations,
including the American Foundation for AIDS Research, the
American Medical Association, the National Association of
People with AIDS, and the U.S. Public Health Service.

The registration fee is $100 for a person with HIV ($75
before September 10), or $254 general ($195 before September
10).

For a preliminary program, or to register, contact KREBS
Convention Management Services, San Francisco, phone 415/255-
1297, fax 415/255-8496.


** Lymph Node Study Still Open

by David Gilden

The U.S. National Institutes of Health lymph node
pathogenesis study referred to in the DNCB article in this
issue has two parts. One part, which has been filled, is
looking at the effect of antiretroviral drugs (AZT and/or
ddI) by examining lymph tissue before and after treatment
begins.

The second branch of the study is focusing on healthy
nonprogressors, people who have lived for eight years or more
with HIV and retained near-normal T-helper counts. The
Immunopathogenesis Section of Dr. Anthony Fauci's Laboratory
of Immunoregulation, which is conducting the study, is still
looking for about six more such people. The study hopes to
identify the correlates of health, to try to define
strategies that maintain health.

Participants are flown free to the NIH hospital in Bethesda,
Maryland, where they will stay for several days. A lymph node
will be removed from under the skin in what is described as a
"relatively minor" procedure. The operation is performed
under local anesthesia. Losing one lymph node is not
considered dangerous because each individual has thousands of
nodes. Some people may be asked to come back later for a
second node removal.

Lymph nodes are one of the centers of immune system activity.
Earlier parts of the NIH study have revealed previously
unsuspected disease processes occurring in the nodes,
including a continuously spreading HIV infection (with no
period of latency), and the gradual disintegration of the
node structure. Tests carried out on the excised node include
microscopic examination, quantitative PCR, in-situ
hybridization, and other high-tech tests to check the
presence of various cell subsets and estimate their rate of
infection with HIV. Investigators want to know, for example,
whether long-term asymptomatic people with HIV have lymph
nodes that resemble those of early-stage or late-stage
disease.

Entry criteria are not rigid; in fact, the NIH team has
recently examined several long-term survivors with very low
T-helper counts. Interested volunteers or their physicians
can call Oren Cohen, M.D., at 301/496-5509 to see if they
qualify, and to make arrangements to enter the study.