Ninth International Congress on Toxoplasmosis

The Ninth International Congress on Toxoplasmosis will be held in June/July2007 in Chico Hot Springs, Montana. This is an international research conferencededicated to the protozoan pathogen Toxoplasma gondii. The meeting has been heldbiannually for the last 20 years and switches between Europe and the United States. The2007 conference will be organized by Drs. Silvia Moreno, Michael White and BorisStriepen. <P> Toxoplasma gondii is an important cause of opportunistic infection in AIDSpatients. This parasite also frequently causes congenital infection and it is estimated thatone out of a thousand pregnancies in the U.S. is complicated by toxoplasmosis. T. gondiiis also considered a potential bioterrorism threat (appendix B) due to its ability to causewaterborne outbreaks. Lastly, T. gondii has emerged as a genetically tractable modelorganism to study the biology and pathogenesis of several important human andveterinary parasites including Plasmodium (malaria), Babesia, Theileria,Cryptosporidium (appendix B pathogen), Cyclospora, Neospora, Eimeria, and Isospora. <P>This meeting is important in that it gathers all of the laboratories working on T. gondiiand allows for the exchange of new ideas and approaches both on a formal and informallevel. Participants come from allover the world (Europe, US, South America, Australia,Japan) and the meeting brings together molecular biologists, clinicians, industryresearchers and public health officials. <P>The goals of the meeting are to disseminate newadvances in the field, highlight the importance of T. gondii as a model system, fostercollaboration and field-wide initiatives, and to introduce new or younger investigators tothe leaders in the field. This meeting has fostered an environment of cooperation andcollaboration in work on T. gondii that is not often seen in fields as high paced andcompetitive and has facilitated rapid and sustained progress in research on this pathogenand related parasites.