Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

The International Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus and Related Viruses has been a recurring annual conference since 1994. It has become the main forum for basic science investigators working on hepatitis C virus (HCV) and related viruses. Over the past 26 years, this conference has been instrumental in developing and advancing major discoveries in the HCV field including the understanding of the virus life cycle and development of in vitro replication systems and animal models. This meeting has fostered the discovery and development of direct acting antivirals (DAA) that have revolutionized the treatment of HCV infection. Understanding the immune response and pathogenesis of chronic HCV infection presented at this meeting are now the basis for ongoing vaccine development and preclinical trials. Despite this progress, basic research on HCV infection remains at the forefront to drive HCV elimination efforts and reduce the morbidity and mortality of the disease. Research into vaccine development, HCV pathogenesis and liver cancer following DAA treatment, novel diagnostics and sequencing approaches to track the evolution and transmission of HCV in at-risk populations are only some of the key remaining research questions. The HCV2020 meeting will focus on the main objective of HCV elimination by bringing together Basic and Clinical investigators to discuss the remaining challenges in the HCV field and novel approaches to tackle them towards this aim. The symposium will bring together keynote lectures from outstanding senior investigators and rising stars in virology, immunology and liver disease. In addition, high quality oral and poster presentations will be selected from submitted abstracts.