UGA’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases to Host Global Health Research Symposium

The University of Georgia’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases will host an international research symposium, “Global Health through Research,” on Sept. 19 and 20 at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel on the UGA campus. The symposium will be held in conjunction with the 18th Annual Molecular Parasitology/Vector Biology Symposium.

To recognize and help celebrate the center’s tenth anniversary, symposium organizers planned the event as an expanded version of their traditional annual meeting. The program will feature ten of the world’s most prominent researchers who study human parasites and the insect vectors that spread them.

“This will be an exciting conference packed with cutting-edge presentations from the best investigators in the field,” said Boris Striepen, a symposium organizer. “We are also eager to present the outstanding work of UGA students and postdoctoral researchers to this highly accomplished audience.”

Scheduled speakers will discuss a wide range of scientific issues, including how parasites conquer their hosts, secure nutrients, and outwit the immune system to cause deadly diseases. Wielding sophisticated tools of molecular biology and genome science, these researchers work to reveal the parasites’ tricks and to develop urgently needed drugs and vaccines. Diseases to be discussed include malaria, sleeping sickness, leishmaniasis and several other diseases associated with AIDS.

The Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases is a university-wide, interdisciplinary center established in 1998 to foster research, education and service related to tropical and emerging infectious diseases. Over the past decade CTEGD has grown into one of the nation’s preeminent institutes for tropical disease research. The center’s 18 members include faculty from eight UGA departments and four colleges. The center also benefits from the participation of adjunct faculty from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

by Helen Fosgate
University of Georgia

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