Vaccines: Major Conference Sept. 5-8 in Philadelphia

AIDS Vaccine 2001, a major scientific conference on AIDS vaccine development, will take place September 5-8 at the Philadelphia Marriott. Sponsors include the U.S. National Institutes of Health, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNAIDS, the World Health Organization, and the Agence Nationale de Recherches sur le SIDA, in France. The organizing committee is David L. Baltimore, Ph.D., Beatrice H. Hahn, M.D., Norman L. Letvin, M.D., Douglas D. Richman, M.D., and Melissa Sordyl. The program committee includes scientists from China, France, India, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and UK, as well as the U.S.

The advance registration deadline has recently been extended to August 17. After that, persons should register onsite at the Philadelphia Marriott.

International press note: "Representatives from non-U.S. media are required to pre-register by Friday, August 24, 2001 in order to receive press credentials to attend the AIDS Vaccine 2001 conference. On-site media registration is not available for non-U.S. media due to the need to verify media credentials in advance" (quoted from the conference Web site, August 5). This has been a problem in at least one previous AIDS conference, as reporters are not used to registering in advance to cover news, and will often not learn of the requirement in time. We are concerned that international journalists may be turned away.


Program

The conference has more than 60 sessions. Talks include:

* The Global Need for an AIDS Vaccine (keynote talk in opening session)

* Lessons from Acute Infection and Relevance to Vaccine Development

* Innate Immunity

* Candidate Vaccines

* Access and Implementation

* Novel Envelope Immunogens

* Experience with AIDS Clinical Trials in Humans: What We've Learned

* Design, Oversight, and Review of Phase III Efficacy Trials

* Therapeutic Vaccines and Immune Response

* The Genesis of HIV Diversity

* Late Breaker and Innovative Strategies Session

In addition there are many poster sessions, mostly on technical topics.

For more information, see the conference Web site, (website no longer available)