8th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention, Vancouver, BC, 19-22 July 2015 - DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Advances in our understanding of HIV pathogenesis, treatment, prevention and implementation have led to unprecedented optimism that global control of the HIV epidemic is possible. Yet enormous uncertainties across the key areas of HIV science remain in 2014, and must be addressed both within and across the many scientific domains of HIV if we are to succeed. HIV persistence and the science of the HIV latent reservoir continue to challenge the HIV cure research effort. Co-infections, co-morbidities, and the challenges of HIV clinical care across the lifespan continue to raise new and critical scientific questions. In the prevention arena, new tools and technologies suggest a prevention revolution - but one that has as yet yielded too few benefits for too few individuals and communities at risk. Furthermore, the science of implementation is a major area of promise for which focused inter-disciplinary attention is urgently required if the potential benefits are to be realized wher they are needed most - in the highly HIV burdened health systems stretched by the pandemic. The 8th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment, and Prevention (IAS 2015), to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, July 19-22, 2015, is expected to gather 6,000 scientists, clinicians, providers, and young investigators engaged in these key areas. To address these issues, the IAS 2015 Conference Coordinating Committee (CCC) has developed the following six objectives for IAS 2015.
• Provide insights into HIV persistence, reservoirs, vulnerability an determinants of disease progression;
• Continue to promote the search for functional remission/cure and HIV vaccines;
• Continue to support research into treatment as prevention;
• Review implementation research that addresses barriers to scaling up and integrating research and prevention in resource limited and policy constrained settings;
• Develop strategic discussions around the increasing challenges of TB, viral hepatitis, chronic co-morbidities, and aging with HIV; and
• Highlight the situation of HIV in Canada and in the U.S. Meeting these aims requires integration: a conference program designed to address cutting-edge issues across disciplines and diseases while fostering participation and reflection among young investigators, researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, donors, and other stakeholders on what has been accomplished and what remains to be done. Special attention in the program agenda will be given to inclusion: meaningful engagement of disproportionately burdened populations in the development and implementation of the Scientific Program with a scholarship program that prioritizes support for people presenting abstracts from resource-limited settings and young investigators. Finally, innovation will be a major priority in the scientific program, an will impact on the dissemination of knowledge from the conference.
