2002 International Meeting of the Institute of Human Virology

The 2002 International Meeting of the Institute of Human Virology will be held Sept. 9-13 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront hotel. The theme of this year's meeting, one of the largest AIDS conferences worldwide for basic researchers who report on often unpublished data, will be "Cures for Tomorrow from Research Today."

Participants from more than 30 countries will be represented at this year's conference, with more than 500 scientists in attendance. Expected to be a recurring theme throughout the meeting -- and to generate the most public interest -- will be reports (Friday) on the latest in AIDS vaccine developments and updates (Wednesday) on entry inhibitors, a brand new class of drugs that utilize a natural compound in the body to effectively halt the progression of AIDS by blocking the HIV virus from entering and infecting human cells and which should soon become the major new advance in therapy for HIV-infected persons.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal also reported just last month that AIDS researchers for the first time have developed a candidate vaccine that in the laboratory elicits antibodies that neutralize multiple strains of the HIV virus. Preliminary results in animals have been positive and Phase I testing in humans could begin in fewer than two years. An update at the Annual International Meeting of the Institute of Human Virology is scheduled for Friday. (Note to reporters: A press luncheon is scheduled for Tuesday.)

"Over the years, this meeting has become one of the world's most important scientific venues," says Martin Delaney, founder of Project Inform, an AIDS educational organization based in San Francisco, CA. "Unlike many of the other meetings that occur every year, the setting offers an excellent mix of new research presentations coupled with vigorous debate and dialogue about the scientific issues that need to be addressed. Things happen, minds open and new ideas flourish as a result of the IHV annual meeting."

The Annual International Meeting of the Institute of Human Virology was founded by Dr. Robert C. Gallo, co-discoverer of the HIV virus that causes AIDS and director of the Institute, which is a center of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute and is affiliated with the University of Maryland Medical Center and the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Gallo describes the current spate of scientific advances as a "punctuation mark" in the history of AIDS research.

"There has been limited success over the past two decades in checking the spread of AIDS, but the scientific community is seeing results in the laboratory and in humans that are indicative of major advances in the treatment and prevention of this deadly disease that's become recognized as the worst epidemic in medical history," says Dr. Mark Kaplan, clinical director of the North Shore University Hospital's Center for AIDS Research & Treatment. "This meeting typically covers basic research ideas and discussions that quite often are years ahead of their time."

Scheduled presentations include:

-- Bahige Baroudy, Schering-Plough, Current Status and Future Development of CCR5 Antagonists (a new class of therapy to block HIV)

-- Dani Bolognesi, Trimeris, Development and Clinical Evaluation of T-20: The First Member of a Novel Class of Anti-Retroviral Agents that Inhibit Membrane Fusion

-- Anthony DeVico, Institute of Human Virology, Immunogenic Properties of HIV gp120-CD4 Complexes (a vaccine that neutralizes many HIV subtypes)

-- Mark Feinberg, Emory School of Public Health, Ignorance is Bliss: How the Natural Hosts for SIV Infection Remain Healthy Despite Long-Term, High-Level Virus Replication

-- John Gearhart, Johns Hopkins University, Human Embryonic Stem Cells: The End of the Beginning

-- Phillipe Hermans, CHU, From Lab to Trial, from Trial to Practice in Treating HIV-Infected Patients

-- George Klein, Karolinska Institute, EBV and Human Malignancy, a Tiny Archipelago in a Sea of Uncertainties

-- John Moore, Weill Cornell Medical College, Prevention of Virus Transmission to Macaque Monkeys by a Vaginally Applied Monoclonal Antibody to HIV-1 by gp120

-- George Pavlakis, National Cancer Institute, Role of Natural Killer Cells as Long-Term Viral Reservoir and Sanctuary for HIV-1 in Patients

-- France Pietri-Rouxel, Institut Cochin, Human Adipose Cells: A New Target Cell Type for HIV-1

This year's Annual International Meeting of the Institute of Human Virology will include a 20-year retrospective of the AIDS epidemic delivered by Delaney, as well as the presentation of the Institute of Human Virology's Lifetime Achievement Award to Alexander Rich, a veteran molecular biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"This award is given to a senior scientist who has had a dramatic impact on biomedical science and whose work affects all of us at the Institute," adds Gallo. Dr. Rich is credited with the discovery of left-handed DNA, the three-dimensional structure of transfer RNA and the earliest laboratory experiments which successfully made proteins.

Press Policy:

To protect the rights of the scientists to make their results first through publication in peer-reviewed journals and to allow them to speak freely during the meeting, we ask all journalists to adhere to a simple but strict rule: No reporting or publication of scientific data presented during the 2002 Meeting is permitted without the consent of the presenter(s). A press luncheon, however, is scheduled for Tuesday at 1 p.m. Meeting program and registration information are posted on the IHV website at www.ihv.org. As a member of the press, registration is waived.