The CosmoCaixa building in Barcelona will host the 30th and 31st of May the international symposium "http://www.vhir.org/activitats/relacioactivitats_detall.asp?Idioma=es&mv1=4&mv2=1&mh1=0&mh2=0&mh3=0&mh4=0&ms=0&any=2013&num=59&RSS=" 'Control or eradication of hepatitis B and C', coordinated by the Liver Diseases research Group at Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research (VHIR), in collaboration with the Spanish Networked Biomedical Research Center in Hepatic and Digestive Diseases (CIBERehd), the Spanish Society of Virology, and with the sponsorship of Ramón Areces Foundation. During two days, basic scientists and clinicians with complementary expertise in the field of infection in hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) will meet to review current knowledge, discuss the improvements in the treatments and to describe predictive factors of response to design cost-effective individualized therapies.Dr. Josep Quer, researcher of the Liver Diseases group at VHIR and coordinator of the scientific programme together with Dr. Juan Ignacio Esteban Mur and Dr. María Buti from VHIR, assures that "we are facing an important time for the treatment of this virus with the application of new massive sequencing technologies which allow the definition of predictive factors of response to new antiviral inhibitors". In the case of HVC, these inhibitors "act against viral regions which are crucial for the replication of the virus, as protease NS3 (two inhibitors have already been approved for clinical use and are being applied in well-defined cases), the NS5A region, which is the protein that controls the replication of VHC, and against NS5B, which is the polymerase of VHC". Hepatitis C is a leading cause of chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, and the major indication for liver transplantation. Blood-transmitted, close to 2.3% of the world population and 2.5% of the Spanish population are chronic HCV carriers. HCV doesn’t have any vaccine and its treatment is only effective in the 50% of the infections, leaving important side effects. Regarding hepatitis B virus, it may cause acute and chronic liver diseases as well as cirrhosis and liver cancer. Almost a third of the human population and a 1% of the Spanish population have been infected with the virus. Nonetheless, unlike HVC, HVB has an effective and safe vaccine.