2nd Annual HIV Mucosal Systems Meeting

We respectfully request funds from Gilead to support The 2nd HIV Mucosal Systems Meeting. Mucosal barriers are at the forefront of HIV infection and disease, which contain physical, biological, immunological, and microbial components that work collectively to form a functioning “system” to maintain mucosal health. Any defects or dysfunction can lead to both increased HIV transmission risk and morbidities/mortality in HIV-infected individuals. Furthermore, many treatment and preventative strategies against HIV target mucosal surfaces for therapeutic action, such as novel antiretroviral therapy regimens, pre-exposure prophylaxis, vaccines and broadly neutralizing antibodies, making this an important area of study. Therefore, understanding mucosal system function and dynamics in HIV infection and disease could identify conditions that favour establishment and maintenance of this mucosal barrier, thereby improving treatment outcomes and better prevention strategies. Given the need for novel ART strategies; the low or variability efficacy of pre-exposure prophylaxis strategies in some populations; the recent startling discovery that normal mucosal biological variation can dramatically undermine their effectiveness, understanding the role of these mechanisms is a growing concern for the HIV field. Taken together, we believe that this important meeting will provide an excellent opportunity for better understanding mucosal systems and how they will benefit novel therapies, improved ART and PrEP regimens, which is highly pertinent to Gilead’s mission.