WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Six of the nation's leading authorities on anthrax will speak at a one-day symposium on "Anthrax: The Biotechnology of Biodefense" on May 26 at Graylyn International Conference Center in Winston-Salem.
The keynote address will be given by Arthur M. Friedlander, M.D., senior scientist and science advisor at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Frederick, Md. He is one of the leading experts on anthrax and the development of anthrax vaccines.
Other speakers will discuss the comparative genomics of anthrax strains, how the coat of the spore is assembled, and the crystal structure of the anthrax lethal toxin and related therapeutic opportunities.
They include Jacques Ravel, Ph.D., of the Institute for Genomic Research at Rockville, Md., Philip Hanna, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, Mich., Adam Driks, Ph.D., of Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., Robert Liddington, Ph.D., of the Burnham Institute in La Jolla, Calif., and Stephen White, D.Phil., of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.
Attendance is limited to 75 pre-registered guests. Those interested should contact Al Claiborne or Misty Allen as indicated on the conference website http://csb.wfu.edu/anthrax_symposium.
Peter Setlow, Ph.D., of the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, Conn., will speak at a dinner following the symposium on "Spores: What We Don't Know But Should – Some Big Unanswered Questions."
The symposium is hosted by the Wake Forest University Center for Structural Biology. Major support for the symposium is coming from the Southeast Regional Center of Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infections, North Carolina Biotechnology Center and Wake Forest University Health Sciences.
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Media Contacts: Robert Conn, rconn@wfubmc.edu, Shannon Koontz, shkoontz@wfubmc.edu, or Karen Richardson, krchrdsn@wfubmc.edu, at 336-716-4587.