Challenges, Opportunities and Successes

The 2015 Gordon Research Conference on "Tropical Infectious Diseases: Challenges, Opportunities and Successes", will present cutting edge research on the most prevalent and medically important tropical infectious diseases (TIDs). Similar to earlier GRCs, the intent of this conference is to gather a multidisciplinary community of scientists for the purpose of discussing basic and field-based research with translational implications in TIDs. The conference will particularly emphasize participation by junior and senior scientists from disease endemic countries.

The 2015 Conference will include sessions that focus on important TIDs, such as malaria, arboviral diseases and poverty-associated neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). In addition, thematic sessions, including management of parasite drug and vector insecticide resistance, status of vaccine development efforts for TIDs, advancements in vector biology for TID control and diseases targeted for elimination by 2020, will be highlighted. For each session, invited speakers who are at the forefront of their respective fields will discuss how progress made at the bench is being translated to actions in the field. Speakers will emphasize interventions based on treatment, vaccination, or interruption of transmission cycles in vectors or reservoir hosts.

An important goal of the Gordon Conference is to attract junior scientists and graduate students (including those from disease endemic countries) to present their work and exchange ideas with leaders in the field. As such, new to this year’s conference will be a "Tropical Infectious Diseases" Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) that will take place prior to the main GRC. The GRS will serve as a platform that allows selected student and postdoctoral researchers to give oral presentations. Additionally, at the GRS junior participants will have the opportunity to present at a poster session and network with other conference attendees.

Both conferences will be held in a historic seaside hotel in Galveston, Texas. This environment offers relaxing beaches and one of the highest concentrations of well-preserved Victorian architecture in the country. Presentations of cutting edge research, along with programmed discussion sessions and opportunities for informal gatherings in the afternoons and evenings, will serve to greatly enrich the community of multidisciplinary and international scientists that work on TIDs.