HIV Dynamics & Evolution 2008
This conference facilitated communication of the most recent results relating to HIV dynamics and pathogenesis, HIV evolution and phylogenetics, immune responses, T cell dynamics and viral escape. The conference also provided a forum for debate and discussion of alternative hypotheses in these areas. A key objective was the integration of new bio-mathematical approaches into research in HIV pathogenesis and vaccine development. Bio-mathematical studies contribute not only to the understanding of the relationships between viruses, but the understanding of selection and viral interplay with the immune system, factors that have bearing on host-pathogen interactions, issues in pathogen forensics and molecular epidemiology and vaccine development.
The rapid advances in understanding the viral basis of HIV pathogenesis that were made in the last few years were due to two significant developments: 1) the availability of reliable assays of plasma viral load and the involvement of bio-mathematicians in developing appropriate quantitative methods for analyzing the data, and 2) analysis of the rapid evolution of HIV and the high level of genetic variation exhibited by viral populations have always been recognized as requiring specialized computational techniques and knowledge. Bio-mathematicians and other individuals with expertise in statistical and computational biology have played a key role in these and later developments. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) scientists have played an important part in these developments. The 2008 meeting was organized by Thomas Leitner and Carla Kuiken at T-10, LANL.
This year was the 15th occasion of the yearly HIV dynamics & evolution meeting series. This meeting, which took place in Santa Fe in April 2008, attracted more participants than have attended for many years. This meeting is the only venue where HIV theoreticians can present their analyses in full mathematical detail. As this is a fast moving field, as usual the meeting had many cutting-edge, yet unpublished, presentations. The meeting is arranged to encourage discussions, and many sessions saw lively interactions between presenters and audience.
Several presentations discussed analyses of the massive amounts of data from new next-generation-sequencing platforms. These new platforms can sample extremely deeply into populations and display the amazing genetic variability of HIV. This creates new challenges for data analysis and treatment of methodological errors. A new session for this year focused on recent developments of software for analyses of genetic variation in virus evolution.
This meeting also reported on lessons from other virus systems such as Hantavirus, West Nile Virus and Hepatitis C. Special attention was given to the emerging field of phylodynamics in the more general area of molecular epidemiology. Phylodynamics joins traditional epidemiology with immunodynamics and evolutionary biology to analyze pathogen spread and effects on human populations. Dynamic processes of virus and host interactions were discussed in a few sessions revealing novel results on acute infections and on how long virus forms may live in infected persons.
Finally, analyses of the global variation of HIV showed new virus forms from previously underrepresented countries. Many participants said this was one of the best meetings so far, with many interesting presentations, both oral and posters. All sessions were full. Based on these outcomes, we conclude it was a successful meeting. The meeting was supported by funds from the Institute for Advanced Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Office of AIDS Research, and the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Next year's meeting will be in Oxford, UK.
Contact: Thomas Leitner, T-10, LANL (tkl@lanl.gov)
Forgot your password?
