FUNDAMENTAL IMMUNOLOGY & ITS THERAPEUTIC POTENTIAL
April 14 - 18, 2015
Poster Abstract Deadline February 28, 2015

Organizers:
James Allison, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center      Eric Pamer, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Fiona Powrie, Oxford University, UK                           Stephen Smale, University of California, Los Angeles

We are pleased to announce a new Cold Spring Harbor meeting on Fundamental  Immunology & Its Therapeutic Potential, which will begin on Tuesday evening, April 14 and end at noon on Saturday, April 18, 2015. The meeting will have a unique focus aimed at enhancing fundamental immunology research while speeding the translation of basic immunology discoveries to the clinic.

The immunology field has entered an exciting new era in which our expanding knowledge of immune regulation is leading to innovative new therapies for the treatment of cancer, infectious diseases, autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, and other diseases. Future clinical advances will continue to be driven by fundamental discoveries, highlighting the importance of strong interactions between basic and translational researchers. Furthermore, it has been firmly established that research advances originally made while studying one type of disease can lead to important therapeutic advances in another disease. One striking example is the remarkable success of checkpoint blockage therapies for the treatment of cancer, drawing on initial fundamental studies in infectious disease models.

With these issues in mind, the objective of this new meeting will be to bring leading senior and junior investigators working on fundamental questions in immunology together with an equally strong group of researchers who have had experience and success translating fundamental advances to the clinic. The meeting will also promote interactions between researchers working on diverse diseases, by including cancer, infectious diseases, autoimmunity and other relevant diseases.

Topics:
Fundamental Mechanisms of Immunity
Cancer Immunotherapy
Anti-Microbial Immunity
Autoimmunity
Inflammatory Disorders
Transplant Immunology

Invited Speakers:
Rafi Ahmed, Emory University School of Medicine
James Allison, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
David Artis, Cornell University, Weill Cornell Medical College
Rosa Bacchetta, Stanford School of Medicine
Yasmine Belkaid, NIAID and NIH Mucusal Immunology Unit
Lisa Coussens, Oregon Health & Science University
Mark Davis, HHMI/Stanford University School of Medicine
Joel Ernst, New York University School of Medicine
Richard Flavell, Yale University School of Medicine
Thomas Gajewski, University of Chicago Medical School
Philip Greenberg, University of Washington
Gillian Griffiths, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, UK
Jose-Carlos Gutierrez-Ramos, Pfizer
Kenya Honda, Keio University School of Medicine, Japan
Lora Hooper, UT Southwestern Medical Center
Michael Karin, University of California, San Diego
Antonio Lanzavecchia, Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Switzerland
Ming Li, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Dan Littman, HHMI/NYU School of Medicine
Michel Nussenzweig, HHMI/Rockefeller University
Eric Pamer, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Fiona Powrie, University of Oxford, UK
Bali Pulendran, Emory University
Nicholas Restifo, National Cancer Institute
Alexander Rudensky, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Michael Sadelain, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Federica Sallusto, Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Switzerland
Ton Schumacher, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Netherlands
Padamanee Sharma, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
Stephen Smale, University of California, Los Angeles
Jedd Wolchok, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Cassian Yee, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center

The format of the meeting will include eight oral sessions and two poster sessions. Each oral session will include invited speakers and speakers selected from submitted abstracts. For this reason, abstracts from accomplished junior and senior investigators are warmly invited. The abstracts should focus on new and unpublished data. The organizers will select abstracts for oral or poster presentations. The status (talk/poster) of abstracts will be posted on our web site (below) as soon as decisions have been made. We have applied for funds from government and industry to partially support graduate students and postdocs.  

We hope to see you at Cold Spring Harbor in April.

This conference may be supported in part by: National Cancer Institute