Emory Report homepage  

October 23, 2006
Yerkes Research Center hosts leading international AIDS symposium

BY stephanie mcnicoll

More than 250 international HIV/AIDS researchers representing 13 countries assembled in Atlanta earlier this month to present the latest findings in primate virology, immunology, pathogenesis, vaccines, therapeutics and genomics at the 24th Annual Symposium on Nonhuman Primate Models for AIDS, hosted by the Yerkes National Primate Research Center. Each year, one of the eight national primate research centers hosts this meeting to further the collaborative and interdisciplinary study of HIV and AIDS using nonhuman primate models.

“This meeting is the premier forum for the presentation and exchange of the most recent scientific advancements in AIDS research using nonhuman primate models,” said Yerkes researcher Frank Novembre, chair of the symposium’s scientific committee. “Nonhuman primates are critical to our efforts to develop and test treatments for HIV and AIDS. The scientific interaction and collaboration this conference facilitates each year leads to researchers applying the latest findings to their research programs. Such knowledge-sharing is accelerating our efforts to find the answers we need to stop this devastating disease.”

Researchers at Yerkes, in collaboration with the Emory Vaccine Center, are working to develop therapeutic and preventive vaccines to slow or eradicate the progression of the international HIV/AIDS epidemic. This is but one component of the center’s extensive microbiology and immunology research. For more information, visit the center’s new Web site at www.yerkes.emory.edu.

TOP