Advances in Basic and Translational Research in Tropical Infectious Diseases

The 2017 Gordon Research Conference on Tropical Infectious Diseases will present cutting edge research on the most prevalent and medically important tropical infectious diseases (TIDs). This will be the fifth time that this particular GRC will be held, and it will have a thematic organization similar to that of the very successful conference held in 2015. The intent is to gather a multidisciplinary community of scientists and discuss cutting edge basic, field-based and translational research in TIDs.

The 2017 GRC will include disease-focused sessions on arboviral diseases (including dengue, chikungunya and Zika), helminth infections, malaria and Chagas disease. In addition there will be thematic sessions, including Microbiomes of Tropical Diseases Vectors, Advances in Vector Biology, and Advances in Translational Strategies to Prevent Tropical Diseases. 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, emphasizing interventions based on treatment, vaccination, or interrupting the transmission cycle in the vector or reservoir hosts.

An important goal of the GRC is to attract junior scientists and graduate students, including those from disease endemic countries, to present their work in poster format and exchange ideas with leaders in the field. Following a successful format from the previous conference, there will be a 2-day Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) organized for senior doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers. Selected participants will give oral presentations and present posters in a setting that promotes networking and gears them towards the GRC that follows on the next day. There will also be a discussion panel organized during the GRS, on careers in science, and participants will have the opportunity to interact with the panel members during the GRS and GRC. The GRS will be an excellent opportunity for highly motivated junior investigators from disease endemic areas to develop collaborations with senior investigators and strengthen on-going research in their own countries.

The Conference will be held in a historic seaside hotel in Galveston, Texas, which offers relaxing beaches and one of the best-preserved concentrations of Victorian architecture in the country. The presentations of cutting edge research, along with the programmed discussion sessions and opportunities for informal gatherings in the afternoons and evenings, will serve to greatly enrich the community of multidisciplinary scientists working on TIDs.