HIV Vaccines, Immunoprophylaxis and Drugs

ABSTRACT Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled HIV Vaccines, Immunoprophylaxis and Drugs, organized by Drs. Hanneke Schuitemaker, Steven Deeks and Dennis Burton. The conference will be held in Keystone, Colorado from June 6 - 10, 2023. Despite the availability of effective treatment and prevention strategies, the HIV pandemic continues, with approximately 1.7 million new infections annually. It is critical for there to be more effective prevention strategies. This Keystone Symposia conference will assemble experts on the biology of HIV transmission and emerging prevention methods, including vaccines and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), in order to discuss the current state-of-the-art in HIV prevention. Specific topics of discussion will include germline vaccination strategies and updates on the vaccine and PrEP efficacy studies. Additionally, the program will cover the challenges and opportunities of developing novel strategies in an era of increasingly effective prevention methods, particularly long-acting PrEP (cabotegravir) and the dapivirine ring, as well as next generation vaccine and PrEP approaches. The role that HIV prevention resources and advances have had on the COVID-19 prevention and HIV cure research agendas will also be discussed, with the hope that these three largely complementary areas of investigation will remain highly synergistic. Finally, this meeting is being held jointly with the Keystone Symposia conference, B Cell Biology in the Context of Infectious Diseases, Autoimmunity and B Cell Cancers. This pairing is ideal to discuss how B cell abnormalities contribute to HIV infection, especially in terms of the potential for antibody-based vaccine development. Participants from both conferences will have the opportunity to network through shared sessions, mealtimes, and evening poster sessions.