---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 13:10:44 -0500 (EST)
From: Listas Ecologia Biologia <ecobio at Venezuela>
To: Lista de Ecologia y Evolucion <ecologia at mit.edu>
Cc: Lista de Biologia <biologia at mit.edu>
Subject: International Workshop on Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics of Pathogenic Microorganisms, June 17-19, 1996
FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT
International Workshop on
Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics
of Pathogenic Microorganisms
June 17-19, 1996
A three-day international workshop at the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) is being organized under the auspices of the CDC,
ORSTOM (the National French agency for scientific research in developing
countries), and CNRS (the National French agency for basic research). This
workshop will bring together clinicians, epidemiologists, molecular
biologists, and evolutionary geneticists working on infectious diseases
(parasites, fungi, bacteria, and viruses) to discuss the various genetic
tools in studies of microbe identification, evolution, and epidemiologic
investigations.
Health care providers, public health professionals, and laboratory
scientists are facing a range of issues in combating infectious diseases.
To meet this challenge, the scientific community needs to be able to
rapidly identify infectious agents in a manner that allows discrimination of
closely related strains and species, and to use genetic information for
studying evolution, emergence, and dispersal of these pathogens.
Over the last two decades, intense efforts have been devoted in several
laboratories toward developing molecular tools for the detection and strain
identification of pathogens. Some of these tools have been employed in
epidemiologic investigations of infectious agents in hospitals and
communities. Studies of population genetics have also created opportunities
for strain identification and molecular taxonomy and for exploring the
relationship between genetic diversity and properties of medical relevance
such as virulence, resistance to drugs, antigenic variation, susceptibility
to potential vaccines, and host and vector specificity.
To address the emerging infectious disease threats, the National Center
for Infectious Diseases (NCID), CDC, has developed a strategic plan that
emphasizes using surveillance and applied research to maintain a strong
defense against infectious diseases. A goal of this plan is the integration
of laboratory science and epidemiology to develop and use tools to detect
and promptly identify emerging and re-emerging pathogens, and investigate
factors that influence their emergence.
This workshop will provide health care providers, public health
professionals, and laboratory scientists, who are using different tools to
work on different pathogens, an opportunity to interact and discuss the
joint use of methodologies needed to meet the challenges of the diagnosis
and management of emerging, re-emerging, and endemic infectious diseases.
For more information about the workshop, please contact Dr. Michel
Tibayrenc [770-488-4524 (phone), 770-488-4454 (fax), mdt3 at CIDDPD2.EM.CDC.GOV
(e-mail)] or Dr. Altaf Lal [770-488-4047 (phone), 770-488-4454 (fax),
aal1 at CIDDPD2.EM.CDC.GOV (e-mail)].
