International Symposium on Human and Veterinary Viruses 2018: From Research to Application (Virus-symposium 2018)

Registration open until 30 January 2018

Rationale and Background

Like many countries worldwide, the livestock industry in Thailand has been afflicted by continual outbreaks of infectious diseases such as porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), Newcastle disease (ND) and Influenza (Flu). Despite commercially available vaccines, these diseases are still accountable for enormous economic loss to the livestock producers, as well as impacting several other aspects of the industry. Most of the currently manufactured vaccines rely heavily on traditional vaccine technologies which, under many circumstances, are not optimal concerning safety and efficacy. Indeed, the challenges for the development of new technologies to tackle with infectious diseases are substantial at the levels of basic biology. Information from basic research is therefore much needed to not only for developing new technologies, but, more importantly, to gain further insights into the biology of pathogens in all aspects ranging from microbiology, molecular biology, immunology, biochemistry, epidemiology, epigenetics and gene regulation, pathogenesis, to genetics and evolution. Compared to those of human pathogens, basic knowledge and understanding of veterinary viruses is much more limited, hampering the research progress to control or eradicate the diseases. Given that viruses that causes human and animal diseases share several common characteristics, numerous technological platforms successfully developed for human diseases such as novel vaccine designs, adjuvant development, or cutting-edge diagnostic tools can provide a great opportunity for applications in animal health research.

Objectives

This symposium is organized with an aim to gather international virology experts from both human and veterinary fields to share research experience, update findings and contribute their expertise through presentation and interactive discussion. The topics will cover a wide range of virology research common in both human and animal aspects. In addition, technological platforms such as vaccine development, and novel assays will be emphasized and addressed.

Organized by

National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC)

National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA)

Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST)

In cooperation with

Institute Pasteur, France

Huazhong Agricultural University, P.R. China

The Pirbright Institute, UK