Scientific Organizers: Giuseppe Pantaleo, Rafick P. Sekaly and Leonidas Stamatatos
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Meeting Summary
As the 30th anniversary of the discovery of HIV has come and gone, HIV remains a catastrophic public health concern, with an estimated global prevalence of 34 million HIV-infected persons. Despite the remarkable advances in the development of several biomedical interventions for the prevention of HIV, the importance of developing an effective HIV vaccine has been recognized by a wide spectrum of the scientific community and civil society. Important milestones for the HIV vaccine field were the demonstration that a vaccine regimen could reduce HIV acquisition and the identification of binding IgG envelope (env) antibodies as potential correlates of protection from HIV acquisition. However, broad neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) are thought to be the main mechanism of protection of the currently available effective vaccines. This meeting addresses the major scientific gaps in the generation of env bNAbs. Major areas covered by the meeting include: 1) Understanding the development of bNAbs in natural infections and following vaccination; 2) Determining predictors of response to vaccines; 3) Reviewing advances in envelope immunogen design; 4) The therapeutic use of bNAbs; 5) The application of novel technologies to monitor the immune response; and 6) The development of therapeutic strategies aimed to functional HIV cure. The meeting will bring together interdisciplinary groups with outstanding expertise in B- and T-cell biology, structural biology, vaccinology and clinical science. It will therefore provide insight into the attendees how innovative basic observations from the bench side may translate into the clinical development of vaccines and therapeutic interventions.