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.