Project description:The 32nd International Conference on Antiviral Research (ICAR), sponsored by the International Society for Antiviral Research (ISAR), was held in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, on May 12-15, 2019. This report gives an overview of the conference on behalf of the Society. It provides a general review of the meeting and awardees, summarizing the presentations, and their main conclusions from the perspective of researchers active in many different areas of antiviral research and development. As in past years, ICAR promoted and showcased the most recent progress in antiviral research, and continued to foster collaborations and interactions in drug discovery and development. The 33rd ICAR will be held in Seattle, Washington, USA, March 30th-April 3rd, 2020.
Project description:The 29th International Conference on Antiviral Research (ICAR) was held in La Jolla, CA, USA from April 17 to 21, 2016. This report opens with a tribute to the late Chris McGuigan, a Past-President of ISAR, then continues with summaries of the principal invited lectures. Doug Richman (Elion Award) investigated HIV resistance, Bob Vince (Holý Award) showed how carbocyclic nucleoside analogs led to abacavir and Jerome Deval (Prusoff Award) explained how his group chose to seek a nucleoside analog to treat RSV. ALS-8176 was active in a human RSV-challenge study and is being evaluated in children. The first keynote address, by Richard H. Scheuermann, reported on the remarkable progress made in viral genomics. The second keynote address, by Heinz Feldmann, gave an overview of Ebola virus disease. There were four mini-symposia, Structural Biology, Diagnostic Technologies, DNA viruses and Zika virus. Diagnostic assays are approaching an ideal aim, a compact instrument, simple to use with any type of sample, no sample preparation and a result within an hour. The diversity of HCMV is far greater than for other herpesviruses, typically, an individual having >20,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). During antiviral treatment, there is rapid CMV evolution which is presumed to be due to preferential selection of already present variants rather than by the creation of new variants. A selection of contributor presentations includes oral prodrugs for nucleoside triphosphate analogs, a new method for the synthesis of phosphoramidate prodrugs and the clinical evaluation of brincidofovir for treating transplant recipients with adenovirus infections.
Project description:Evaluation researchers have confirmed the importance of conference evaluation, but there remains little research on the topic, perhaps in part because evaluation methodology related to conference impact is underdeveloped. We conducted a study evaluating a 4-day long health conference, the Second Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR), which took place in Beijing in November 2012. Using a conference evaluation framework and a mixed-methods approach that involved in-conference surveys, in-conference interviews and 7-month post-conference interviews, we evaluated the impact of the Symposium on attendees' work and the field of health systems research. The three major impacts on participants' work were new knowledge, new skills and new networks, and many participants were able to provide examples of how obtaining new knowledge, skills or collaborations had changed the way they conduct their work. Participants noted that the Symposium influenced the field of HSR only in so far as it influenced the capacity of stakeholders, but did not lead to any high level agenda or policy changes, perhaps due to the insufficient length of time (7 months) between the Symposium and post-conference follow-up. This study provides an illustration of a framework useful for conference organizers in the evaluation of future conferences, and of a unique methodology for evaluation researchers.
Project description:On December 4th 2014, the International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH) at Ghent University organized an international conference on adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) and well-being. This viewpoint highlights two key messages of the conference--(1) ASRH promotion is broadening on different levels and (2) this broadening has important implications for research and interventions--that can guide this research field into the next decade. Adolescent sexuality has long been equated with risk and danger. However, throughout the presentations, it became clear that ASRH and related promotion efforts are broadening on different levels: from risk to well-being, from targeted and individual to comprehensive and structural, from knowledge transfer to innovative tools. However, indicators to measure adolescent sexuality that should accompany this broadening trend, are lacking. While public health related indicators (HIV/STIs, pregnancies) and their behavioral proxies (e.g., condom use, number of partners) are well developed and documented, there is a lack of consensus on indicators for the broader construct of adolescent sexuality, including sexual well-being and aspects of positive sexuality. Furthermore, the debate during the conference clearly indicated that experimental designs may not be the only appropriate study design to measure effectiveness of comprehensive, context-specific and long-term ASRH programmes, and that alternatives need to be identified and applied. Presenters at the conference clearly expressed the need to develop validated tools to measure different sub-constructs of adolescent sexuality and environmental factors. There was a plea to combine (quasi-)experimental effectiveness studies with evaluations of the development and implementation of ASRH promotion initiatives.