Dear Sir(s),

The UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO DE JANEIRO – UFRJ, is organizing the VIII Brazilian AIDS Research Conference - VIII SIMPÓSIO DE PESQUISA EM AIDS - SIMPAIDS, will be held in Windsor Hotel Barra, from 28th June to 1st July of 2009, Rio de Janeiro city, Brazil.

The SIMPAIDS is a bi-annual meeting of the Brazilian scientific community involved in HIV/AIDS research, it reaches different areas: clinical, epidemiological and basic virology. This meeting originated on behalf of the HIV/AIDS National Program of the Ministry Heath; and the first edition was in 1995. Since then, the SIMPAIDS has being growing, increasing their complexity and putting together more researches every year, further on new important Brazilian researches to the fight against AIDS. The previous versions of the SIMPAIDS already get together from 300 to 600 registered participants, and we are expecting reunite in this version, in the city of Rio de Janeiro more than 600 participants.
Despite being a Brazilian meeting, the SIMPAIDS has characterized by their international relevance: each year the number of international researches on HIV field as keynote speaker increases. In this edition we can mention:

- Adrian B McDermott, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, New York, EUA;
-Anne-Mieke Vandamme, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Laboratory for Clinical and Epidemiological Virology, Leuven, Bélgica;
- Boris M. Peterlin, Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, EUA;
- David Watkins, University of Wisconsin-Medison, Madison, EUA;
- Douglas D. Richman, VA San Diego Helthcare System and University of California San Diego, EUA;
- Dorothy H. Bray, Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit, London, Inglaterra;
- Eric O. Freed, HIV Drug Resistance Program National Cancer Institute, Frederick, EUA;
- Ioannis Theodorou, CHU Pitié Salpetrière (AP-HP), Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France;
- Neil Parkin, WHO/HIVResnet, Genebra, Suiça;
- Steven Deeks, HIV/AIDS Division, San Francisco General Hospital, University of California, San Francisco, EUA;

The scientific program will cover of international plenary, national plenary, discussion tables, satellites symposiums, oral and poster presentations and free theme symposia. Various research and heath Brazilian institutions will be represented: Oswaldo Cruz Fundation – FIOCRUZ, BioManguinhos, Farmanguinhos, National Program of DST / AIDS – Ministry Health, Health States Secretarial, Hearth Institute of São Paulo (InCor-SP), Federal University of São Paulo (USP), Medice School of São Paulo, Federal Universities, National Reference Laboratories (LACENs), etc.

For the execution of this meeting we will have the support of pharmaceutical industry and diagnostics that we consider of a great important partner to the successes of the event. These partners have a history of partnership between SIMPAIDS and our Health Industry.

In this edition of SIMPAIDS, we intend to give few awardees for scientific works.

We hope to see you in Rio de Janeiro for the VIII SIMPAIDS – 2009!

Rodrigo M. Brindeiro

Amílcar Tanuri

Laboratório de Virologia Molecular Animal (LAVIMOAN) - UFRJ

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