HIV and (Re)Emerging Viruses: Aligning Lessons Across Pandemics

ABSTRACT Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled HIV and (Re)Emerging Viruses: Aligning Lessons Across Pandemics, organized by Drs. Melanie Ott, Priti Kumar, Olivier Schwartz and Alex Sigal. The conference will be held in Hannover, Germany from April 8-11, 2024. This Keystone Symposia conference brings together researchers studying HIV with those investigating emerging and re-emerging viruses of global concern to advance knowledge on pathogenesis, evolution, prevention, treatment, and long-term sequelae. The goal is to gain a better understanding of molecular mechanisms and apply lessons learned from one outbreak to another with a focus on deploying recent technological advances such as next-generation sequencing (NGS), gene editing, antibody, and mRNA therapeutics to tackle emerging infections. This conference program includes sessions that will cover infections such as HIV, SARS-CoV-2, monkeypox, Influenza, hemorrhagic fevers, among others. The influence of an underlying HIV condition on other viral infections will also be discussed. This conference will feature speakers from across the globe and bring together researchers who study a variety of viral infections, with an aim of merging mechanistic and therapeutic insights gleaned from diverse pathogens to identify intersections and potential opportunities in prevention and therapeutics related to HIV and other viruses. The unique intersection of researchers and scientific topics of this conference, and the opportunities for informal cross-disciplinary discussions, networking and mentoring interactions offer an unparalleled forum to advance virology research at a critical time following on the recent COVID-19 pandemic.