Discussing viruses in Napoleon's backyard

I just returned from Ajaccio (pronounced Ajak-cio) on the western coast of the island of Corsica, a French territory in the Mediterranean Sea, which is actually closer to Italy than it is to France. Besides being an extremely beautiful locale, its claim to fame is being the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The purpose of this trip was to attend a meeting of the International Consortium on Antivirals (http://www.icav-citav.ca/), "a not-for-profit drug development organization dedicated to the discovery and development of anti-viral therapies for neglected and emerging diseases." This was a small "by invitation" conference with scientists from various parts of the world who discussed emerging viruses, neglected diseases and strategies to fight them over 3 days.

Most of the group traveled from Marseille to Ajaccio (map on left), an overnight journey on the ship Napoleon Bonaparte. I flew from Delhi to Paris, on to Ajaccio to land at the (you guessed it right) Napoleon Bonaparte airport. Ajaccio, the capital city of Corsica is at the northern end of Ajaccio Bay (map on right). The conference was in Ajaccio, but we stayed at a resort called Coralia Club across the Bay at Porticcio (map on right), about 20 km by road or a 15 minute ferry ride across the Bay.

Ajaccio Bay is beautiful with hills lining it all along. It makes for a perfect setting to watch the sunset, and if you can get up early enough in the morning when the moon is full, it offers a spectacular sight. The pictures below show various moods across Ajaccio Bay, from Ajaccio and Porticcio.

Corsica is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with a coastline of over 1000 km and a population of only around 250,000. Large parts of the island are Nature Reserves, which includes rare breeding sites for sea eagles and protection for other endangered species. Corsica has been inhabited continuously since the Mesolithic Age and over time acquired an indigenous population that has influenced Mediterranean history. It became part of the Roman Empire, and was claimed by the Repulics of Pisa and Genoa. The Genoese took possession in 1347 and governed till 1729, briefly being taken by the French in 1553. The Corsican Independence Movement began in 1729 and 26 years later, in 1755 an independent Corsican Republic was formed under the leadership of Pasquale Paoli, which remained sovereign till 1768. In 1764, Corsica was secretly purchased by the French from the Republic of Genoa. Following a  brief civil war in 1768-69, Corsica was incorporated into France in 1770.

Napoleon Bonaparte (Nabulione Buonaparte) was born in 1769 in the house of Charles-Marie Buonaparte, an attorney and secretary to Pasquale Paoli. The modest 4-storey home is now a museum in the heart of Ajaccio, not far from the central piazza, the cathedral and the Town Hall.

The central piazza has a statue of Napoleon on horseback surrounded by his four brothers. Napoleon's presence is all over this town in the form of statues, streets and lanes.

Travel to the northern point of Ajaccio Bay and you come across some interesting sights. At lands end the coast is rocky and the Sanguinaires archipelago is visible with its Genoese tower, which was used to sight pirates and warn the inland population by lighting fires. Similar towers can also be found inland to relay the message through smoke and drums.

Another very interesting and unique sight towards the northern end of Ajaccio Bay is the Cemetery. It is unique because unlike other cemeteries with graves, this one has small chapels, each for an individual or many times even for a family.

While strolling through the Cemetery, I captured an interesting view with the chapels in the foreground and modern apartments in the background. I call this "Apartments for the Dead and Living".

The beauty of this place is awesome. I forget I was actually here to discuss viruses, viral diseases and research on drugs against them. So, back to the science.

The Conference was held at the Palais des Congres, which overlooks the Ajaccio Port. The first session presented an innovative model for funding drug development research. This included adding a small tax on international travel, which has so far raised over $500 million to finance access to medicines in developing countries.

The session "HIV - Present and Future Challenges" discussed various aspects of HIV vaccines, including recent success of the ALVAC-AIDSVAX prime-boost vaccine combination (which I covered in an earlier blog; Sept 24), and the failed Merck vaccine trial last year. Discussions also  focused on the host response to HIV infection and ways to modulate the host to contain infection.

The session "Dengue - An integrated model for arthropod-borne viral disease control" was dominated by an elegant and comprehensive talk by Eva Harris from UC-Berkeley. Eva's efforts from the bench to bedside in dengue research, her reach in impoverished and under-developed scientific communities, and her efforts to make them part of the solution are truly inspiring. Various other lectures and discussions focused on new drug targets in dengue and other flavi viruses. The community seems to be coming together for drug design and testing that requires coordination between virologists, structural biologists, bioinformatics experts, organic chemists, industry and clinical trials experts.

The sessions on "Emerging Viruses" started with  an entertaining but highly informative talk by Ernst Gould from Oxford University. Ernie's appearance and mannerisms reminded me of one of the comedians on the very funny TV show "Whose Line Is It Anyway". Various other speakers dealt with drug design efforts against hepatitis C virus, influenza virus, and more generic approaches to broadly active drugs against positive- or negtive-stranded RNA viruses. Predictably, pandemic flu viruses dominated the discussions.

This is definitely one of the best meetings that I have attended in a long time. Besides the beautiful surroundings, the science was good, discussions were intense but friendly and informal, the organization was superb, and there were just enough people to make it scientifically interesting yet personal.

One advantage of meeting in a small place is that even scientists get noticed. The Mayor of Ajaccio organized a reception for us in the Town Hall. We passed through a ceremonial Guard of Honour and were welcomed and addressed by the Mayor himself in the richly decorated Napoleon Bonaparte room.

The ICAV recognizes the state of scientific research and the pharmaceutical industry in India, and expressed interest in starting an India Consortium. A few MOUs were signed between ICAV and Indian institutions. We return energized from this conference and hope to get more Indian colleagues involved in this unique effort. We also hope to organize the 2011 ICAV Annual Conference somewhere in India.

I would like to personally thank  the organizers for inviting me and a few other colleagues from India. Jeremy and Michel are the brains behind ICAV; Rajan and Christine did all the logistics. Thank you everyone for a wonderful and stimulating meeting.

I hope to see you all in Montreal next year.