8th International Retroviral NC Symposium

Retroviruses are involved in a wide variety of cancers and immune-system disorders in animals and humans, including infectious diseases like AIDS or the flu. The first research studies on retroviral proteins revealed that all retroviruses contain a highly conserved sequence involved in forming the viral nucleocapsid, as well as in other important functional properties of the retrovirus. The ability of proteins in the nucleocapsid to join nucleic acids, in particular with the specific RNA that codifies the viral genome, suggests that it plays an important role in the replication cycle of retroviruses.

The International Center for Scientific Debate has collaborated in organizing the 8^th International Retroviral NC Symposium. This event will bring together one hundred international experts (doctors, researchers from various areas of molecular biology and genetics, physicists, microbiologists, and more) to exchange their latest results related to retroviral nucleocapsid proteins and homologous proteins in other viruses. There will be a special session with specialists from transversal areas of research devoted to HIV-1, which causes AIDS.

The symposium will open with a keynote speech by Dr. Françoise Barré Sinoussi, 2008 Nobel Laureate in Medicine for her discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and researcher at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. The program includes a variety of scientific sessions, conferences, debates, roundtables, poster presentations, networking activities and an art workshop featuring the prestigious work of artist Dr. Lou Henderson, who has illustrated numerous covers for the journal Nature.