Message from the Chairs
Thanks to those who submitted abstracts to the AIDS Vaccine 2008 Conference. We received a record number of abstracts this year which is a testimony to the intense interest this field is attracting. All abstracts were reviewed by a panel of international experts and using these recommendations, we have put together 9 oral sessions and 4 poster discussion groups (a total of 92 selected abstracts). Accepted peer-reviewed abstracts will be published on-line by AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses during the week of the Conference which will be open access to allow as many people as possible to view them. We are also investigating having the plenary sessions available as podcast/flash drive presentations shortly after the Conference.
Those of you who have exciting new data that you would like to be considered for a late-breaker have until 29 August to submit an abstract.
We also received a record number of International Scholarships and Travel Award applications. So far we have awarded 90 Scholarships to scientists from developing countries including South Africa, China, Brazil, Argentina, Kenya, Nigeria, Thailand and Uganda, and 49 Travel Awards to scientists from the USA and Europe. Through generous local funding we have also been able to support 20 local Cape-Town based students through registration waivers. Five New Investigator Awards have also been made which will be announced during the Conference.
As you will see from the preliminary program we have attracted some of the leading names in the vaccine field to the meeting. Dr Stanley Plotkin, who developed the rubella vaccine and is the author of "Vaccines" a standard textbook, will be giving one of the opening plenary talks together with Dr Alan Bernstein from the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise and Dr Malegapuru Makgoba from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. We will have 10 state-of-the-art plenary lectures covering all aspects of HIV vaccine research and including a few speakers from outside the field. There will be 3 Symposia, 2 Special Sessions, 1 Roundtable as well as 2 Debates on current controversial topics.
The major sponsors of the Conference are the OAR/NIH and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Others sponsors are the Henry M Jackson Foundation, South African Department of Science and Technology, WHO/AAVP, ANRS, CDC, IAVI, The Wellcome Trust, EGPAF and the South African TB and AIDS Training. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our sponsors without whom we would not be able to host this important event.
We look forward to seeing you all in Cape Town in October.
Dr Lynn Morris
National Institute for Communicable Diseases, University of the Witwatersrand
Dr Koleka Mlisana
CAPRISA, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Dr Glenda Gray
Perinatal HIV Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
Dr Carolyn Williamson
Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town