Host Directed Therapeutic Strategies to Combat Infection and Reduce Emergence of Drug Resistance Conference

This symposium will bring together individuals who focus on anti-pathogen therapies directed at host mechanisms in an effort to limit the emergence of drug resistance and develop new strategies for treatment of infectious diseases. It will highlight this therapeutic approach from conception of new therapies to their application.

Key Sessions

• Host directed therapies for bacterial infection
• Host directed therapies for viral infection
• Host directed therapies for other infections
• Identification of cellular targets for host directed therapies
• Methods to identify new host directed therapies
• Emergence of drug resistance with host directed therapies and future work

Learning Objectives

• To inform the audience about related host directed therapeutic approaches
• To outline the development of host directed therapeutics from identification of target/compound to formulation to application in relevant infectious models.

Target Audience

The target audience will be multidisciplinary and include medical doctors, scientists and engineers studying microbiology, immunology, chemistry, and applied sciences related to treatment of infectious diseases. As this is a new therapeutic strategy, relatively few companies are involved in production of host directed therapy, so a majority of the audience is anticipated to be academic or from governmental agencies.

Educational Need

The development of treatments for infectious diseases is primarily focused on direct pathogen to drug therapies, whereas emerging therapies that are host directed are thought to lessen the emergence of drug resistance. Host directed therapies have also been shown to recover drug sensitivity to traditional antibiotics.

Therefore the future of treating infectious diseases should include the development of compounds or strategies that target the host.

2017 HDTS Poster Prize

The conference chairs will be awarding 3 poster prizes for the best poster display and presentation. To be in with a chance of winning, submit your poster by 31 July 2017. The winners will be selected shortly after the Poster Session and the following prizes will be awarded: 1st Place $350, 2nd Place $250, 3rd Place $150. 

Keynote Speakers

Alan Sher (NIH/NIAID)
'TARGETS FOR HOST-DIRECTED THERAPY OF TUBERCULOSIS'

Abhay Satoskar (Ohio State University)
'HOST –DIRECTED THERAPIES FOR PARASITIC INFECTIONS'

Invited Speakers

Eric Bachelder (UNC)

Oreola Donini (Soligenix)

Ann Eakin (NIH)
'NIAID RESOURCES TO FACILITATE DISCOVERY & DEVELOPMENT OF ANTI-INFECTIVES'

Alexander Freiberg (University of Texas Medical Branch)

Shiva Gangappa (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
'EVALUATION OF ‘FREE RADICAL GENERATING ENZYMES’ IN INFLUENZA-INDUCED DISEASE SEVERITY'

Timothy Hammond (Duke University)

Laurel Lenz (University Of Colorado, Denver)
'COULD TYPE I IFN-DRIVEN SUPPRESSION OF MYELOID CELL IFNGR BE A USEFUL TARGET FOR THERAPY OF BACTERIAL INFECTIONS?'

Roman Lukaszewski (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory)

Denise Monack (Stanford University School of Medicine)

Gene Olinger (NIH/ Boston University)

Rekha Panchal (USAMRIID)

Craig Roberts (University of Strathclyde)
'MANIPULATING HOST INFLAMMATION AND METABOLISM FOR THERAPEUTIC BENEFIT'

Jonathan Wong (DRDC)
'EXPERIMENTAL HOST DIRECTED TREATMENT OF HYPERCYTOKINEMIA IN EMERGING VIRAL INFECTIONS'

Jun Yu (University of Strathclyde)
'IDENTIFICATION OF AN INNATE RESPONSE HOST NETWORK FOR THERAPY'

Although the programme has not yet been released, we are able to confirm that the conference should begin no earlier than 14:45 with opening comments on 25th September 2017. Registration and a welcome lunch should be available from 14:00. The conference will conclude no later than 12:30 on 28th September 2017.