DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Candida is the major fungal pathogen of humans, causing diseases that range from oral and vaginal candidiasis to life-threatening candidemia and invasive disease. The Candida field focuses on a broad spectrum of subjects that relate to epidemiology, drug resistance, infection, host response, vaccines and therapeutics. The Candida and Candidiasis Conference, held every two years, is the premier forum for presentation of cutting-edge advances and the latest perspectives in these diverse areas. Funds are requested to provide partial support for the 12th Conference on Candida and Candidiasis, which will be held from 26-30 March, 2014, in New Orleans, LA. The conference will be sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology, which will provide both management expertise and financial support. The program will be based upon past conferences in the series, which have reliably drawn attendance of around 400 American and International scientists, and have been met with enthusiastic support in participant surveys. This program will include 34 speakers chosen for their expertise in fundamental and/or clinical mycology and 62 speakers who will be selected based on submitted abstracts. This arrangement will provide the flexibility to present cutting-edge advances and to enlist a diverse spectrum of emerging and established community members as speakers. There will be clinical talks about the epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of candidiasis, with speakers carefully prescreened for affability and effectiveness. These talks will be incorporated into sessions that focus on various key aspects of candidal infections, including environmental signaling, antifungal agents and resistance, immune recognition, vaccines, morphogenesis, and biofilms. In a lunch session on Candida case reports, clinicians will inform basic scientists about the challenges of diagnosing and treating different types of infection. Informal parallel sessions will address infection models, metabolic adaptation, fungal drug interactions and new technologies while further encouraging productive interaction and discussion. There will be a poster session each afternoon to allow ample discussion of the 250-300 posters that will be presented. We are confident that our goals - to present the latest advances in the field, to spotlight achievements of junior scientists (especially women and minorities), to promote synergistic and interdisciplinary interactions, and to provide a venue for community-wide discussion - will be achieved.

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Candida is the major fungus that causes infectious disease, affecting AIDS patients, cancer chemotherapy patients, premature infants, and many others. The 12th Conference on Candida and Candidiasis will provide a forum for the Candida research community to present the most recent advances and ideas, covering a broad spectrum of subjects from clinical issues to molecular mechanisms, from growth of the fungus to the host response. The conference will help chart the course of future research and facilitate the urgent necessity to understand, treat, and prevent disease.