Information of the
First Influenza Dynamics and Evolutionary Analysis (IDEA) workshop
The Fogarty International Center (FIC) is pleased to sponsor our first Influenza Dynamics and Evolutionary Analysis (IDEA) workshop on June 24 – 26, 2009 at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, USA.
The first 1.5 days of the meeting (Jun 24 (am/pm) and Jun 25 (am)) will feature scientific presentations on influenza virus evolution research and methodologies, including phylogenetics, antigenic evolution, and molecular epidemiology. The second 1.5 days of the meeting (Jun 25 (pm) and Jun 26) will consist of a technical workshop during which experts in influenza virus research will assist collaborators in the analysis of their own virologic, antigenic, and/or clinical influenza virus data (see program). The workshop will focus on phylogentic analysis of influenza virus sequence data, and will also include other methods of evolutionary research. It is our hope that the workshop will result in future collaborations and scientific publications.
If you are interested in contributing an oral presentation to this meeting, please register for the meeting on our website and submit a short abstract (< 400 words) on human and/or avian influenza. The abstract should describe a published, on-going, or future research project related to influenza virus evolution, including phylogenetics, antigenic evolution, intra-host dynamics, spatial-temporal spread, and molecular epidemiology. Participants who also submit a brief description of the data they would like to analyze and are able to bring to the workshop will be given preferred admittance to the technical workshop. Participants who are interested in attending the technical workshop to learn new analytical methods but who do not have data currently available also will be considered, based on space availability. Please email us at nelsonma@mail.nih.gov if you wish to be considered for the workshop but will not be submitting a dataset description. Travel scholarships are available for selected workshop participants pending submission of abstract and/or dataset description.
Conference Venue
The conference will be held at the Lawton Chiles International House (Stone House) located on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
Accommodations
Please note that meeting and workshop participants are responsible for making their own lodging arrangements. Fogarty will make arrangements only for travel scholarship recipients.
For your convenience, we have negotiated a preferential rate at the Doubletree Hotel in Bethesda, walking distance (see route) from the NIH conference venue.
Visa requirements for the United States
Visitors to the United States must possess a valid passport and visa. Please see http://travel.state.gov/ for information about obtaining US visas. Visitors from the following countries do not need a visa to enter the United States: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Please contact us at nelsonma@mail.nih.gov if you would like an invitation letter to facilitate the acquisition of a visa.
Air services
Three major airports service the Washington, DC area: Dulles International (IAD), Reagan National Airport (DCA) and Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI). Most international visitors arrive through Dulles International.
Workshop participants
Please upload the following freely available software programs PRIOR to the workshop (see program):
BEAST (latest version: http://octopus.cap.ed.ac.uk/)
Mr. Bayes (http://mrbayes.csit.fsu.edu/download.php)
Muscle alignment tool (http://www.drive5.com/muscle/)
Se-Al (http://tree.bio.ed.ac.uk/software/seal/) (Mac users)
Tracer (http://tree.bio.ed.ac.uk/software/)
FigTree (http://tree.bio.ed.ac.uk/software/)
Further information
Please contact Martha Nelson nelsonma@mail.nih.gov.
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