NIH Support for Conferences and Scientific Meetings

Abstract The 8th Many Hosts of Mycobacteria (MHM VIII) meeting will be held at the ZooTampa at Lowry Park in Tampa, Florida March 4-6, 2019. This meeting is co-organized by Michelle Larsen (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) and Don Ennis (University of Louisiana at Lafayette). Ray Ball (Senior Veterinarian, ZooTampa at Lowry Park ) is the local host for the 8th Many Hosts of Mycobacteria meeting and a member of the planning committee. The purpose of the meeting series is to bring together basic researchers, clinicians, and veterinary medicine researchers that study mycobacterial diseases/hosts. The previous seven Many Hosts of Mycobacteria meetings have been held at the National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa (September 2007), Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (September 2008), the historic former leprosy sanatorium in Carville, Louisiana (November 2009), Lowry Zoo in Tampa, Florida (March 2011), Bethesda, Maryland (July 2012), Tulane National Primate Research Center, Covington, Louisiana (March 2015), and Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado (August 2017). These meetings are small (~70- 90 attendees) and have open registration. A workshop format is used for the meetings to foster open and interactive discussion. The diverse perspectives are exemplified by inclusion of fourteen models (mouse, guinea pig, rabbit, badger, possum, ferret, mongoose, armadillo, fish, deer, cattle, elephant, monkeys and humans) and both experimental and natural infections (Tuberculosis from M. bovis and M. tuberculosis; Leprosy from M. leprae, Johne?s Disease from M. avium paratuberculosis, and general mycobacterial infections from M. ulcerans and non-tuberculous mycobacteria). With an overarching theme of mycobacterial diseases and hosts, each meeting has had a specific focus: ?Many Hosts of Mycobacteria? (MHM I, 2007; Ames, IA); ?Immunopathology? (MHM II, 2008; Gettysburg, PA); ?Comparative Mycobacteriology? (MHM III, 2009; Carville, LA); Biomarkers (MHM IV, 2011; Tampa, FL); Translational Science (MHM V, 2012; Bethesda, MD); ?Host Specificity and Disease Dynamics? (MHM VI, 2015; Covington, LA); and ?Bringing Science into the Community? (MHM VII, 2017; Ft. Collins, CO). The theme of the 8th Many Hosts of Mycobacteria meeting will be ?Back to the Future? to assess progress and challenges in mycobacterial diseases since the inaugural meeting in 2007. We target inclusion of young investigators as speakers and moderators for these meetings to foster discussion of new ideas and allow for development of collaboration between research groups that do not typically interact with each other.