AiD | ULUSLARARASI DUYURULAR

World Immune Regulation Meeting-II, 17 20 March 2008, Davos, Switzerland

Dear friends and colleagues,

On behalf of the organizing committee, it is a pleasure to invite you to join us in the 2008 “World Immune Regulation Meeting-II" with special focus on Regulatory Cells and Th17 cells.

This meeting will be held in March 17 – 20, 2008 in the Congress Center, Davos, Switzerland. Registration has started.

As you can note from the highlights of the program, this meeting promises to be exciting and we want to ensure that it has an exceptional impact on all who attend.

Basic Mechanisms

-Transcriptional regulation of immune tolerance and reactivity
- Development of effector & regulatory T cells
- T and B cell memory and immune regulation
- Th17 cells interaction with tissue cells
- Dendritic cell subsets & immune regulation
- Chemokines & receptors in peripheral tolerance
- Immune senescence & peripheral tolerance
- Apoptosis in the regulation of immune responses
- Mechanisms of immune privilege
- Focus on clinical application, drug discovery and novel biotechnological developments
- Regulatory and effector T cell subsets and cytokines: From bench to bedside
- Tolerating the nervous system: a delicate balance
- Unsettled questions about the hygiene hypothesis in allergic and autoimmune diseases
- Regulatory T cells induced by parasites
- Tumor antigen-specific T cell tolerance
- Immune tolerance and autoimmunity
- Regulatory T cells in organ transplantation tolerance
- Models of inducing and breaking peripheral tolerance
- Mucosal tolerance & intestinal homeostasis
- Development of novel vaccines and drugs
- Anti-cytokine antibodies in chronic inflammatory disease

I would like to mention here that we had the “World Immune Regulation Meeting” with special focus on regulatory cell subsets in Davos with great success. The faculty included Abbas, Akbar, Anderton, Bach, Bachmann, Belkaid, Bieber, Chatila, Coffmann, Cohn, Crameri, Cromwell, Curiel, Dayer, Denburg, Enk, Fontana, Frew, Goverman, Gray, Hamelmann, Hawrylowicz, Heusser, Jakob, Johnston, Kalinke, Kapsenberg, Kopf, Krammer, Kuchroo, Lambrecht, Lanzavecchia, Larché, Lauener, Lehrach, Levitsky, Maizels, Matzinger, Mellor, Moingeon, Oxenius, Platts-Mills, Powrie, Renz, Romagnani, Roncarolo, Rudensky, Sakaguchi, Sallusto, Schmidt-Weber, Sharpe, Shevach, Spangfort, Suciu-Foca, Virchow, von Boehmer, Waldmann, Weiner, Wraith, Yazdanbakhsh, Ziegler, Zinkernagel. There was more than 700 participants.

The abstract book of the congress has been downloaded more than 23’000 times and our website received more than 750’000 hits during the congress and the week before demonstrating the huge worldwide interest.

I copied below the list of our confirmed speakers and the titles of their talks.

Shizuo Akira: Toll-like receptors and RIG-I-like receptors in antiviral responses Jacques Banchereau: Roads leading to type I interferons Carlos F. Barbas: Genetically and chemically engineered antibodies Richard S. Blumberg: T cell inhibition by carcinoembryonic cell adhesion molecule 1 Barbara Bohle: Allergen-specific T cell responses Marco A. Cassatella: How do neutrophils contribute to immune regulation Andrea Cerutti : Understanding the regulation of immunoglobulin heavy chain class switching Hilde Cheroutre: Reciprocal regulatory mechanisms between TH17 and T regulatory Cells Stanley N. Cohen: Exploitation of host cell regulatory mechanisms by pathogens Robert L. Coffman: Differentiation and functions of T cell subsets Marco Colonna: Novel ITIM bearing receptors and functions Charles Garrison Fathman: GRAIL, a unique mediator of CD4 T cell anergy Gerd Folkers: Strategies for the selection of small molecules interacting with the immune system Raif Geha: Mechanisms of immunoglobulin isotype switching in B cells Ronald N. Germain: Lymphocyte entry, migration, and territoriality in lymph nodes Michel Goldman: A reassessment of cellular mechanisms underlying graft rejection Stefan H. Kaufmann: Progress in tuberculosis vaccine development. Tadamitsu Kishimoto: From IL-6 to Th17 cells Vijay J. Kuchroo: Th17 cells in the circle of immunity and autoimmunity Bart Lambrecht: Novel mechanisms of inflammation in asthma Andrew H. Lichtman: Tissue and immune thresholds controlling myocardial inflammatory responses Yong-Jun Liu: Development and characteristics of dendritic cell subsets Claire Lloyd: Regulation of allergen induced airway disease Jan Lötvall: Exosome-mediated transfer of mRNAs and microRNAs between cells Ravinder Nath Maini: TNF-alpha in autoimmune disease Polly Matzinger: T cell dendritic cell interaction Hans Ochs: Learning rules of immune regulation from primary immune deficiencies Peter Openshaw: Immune regulation and T-B cell interactions in neonatal viral infection Werner Pichler: Drugs directly binding to TCR and stimulating T cells - a novel concept supplementing the hapten hypothesis Andreas Plückthun: Designed ankyrin repeat proteins: from in vitro discovery to in vivo targeting Bali Pulendran: Translating innate immunity into immunological memory Anjana Rao: Transcriptional control of T cell activation and tolerance Sergio Romagnani: T cells, where are we?
David Sacks: Immune response to leishmania Shimon Sakaguchi: Transcriptional control of Treg cells Alan Sher: Immune response to parasites Yehuda Shoenfeld: To smell autoimmunity: autoantibodies, depression, and the olfactory system Derya Unutmaz: Immune regulation during HIV infection Dario Vignali: IL-35 a novel inhibitory cytokine contributes to Treg function Paul M. Watt: The natural repertoire of biodiverse protein folds as a new source of peptide therapeutic Rolf Zinkernagel: Determinants of immune regulation Laurence Zitvogel: Links between innate and adaptive tumor immunity

Special lecture:
Ulrike Lohmann: Global warming and climate change

As ever, immune regulation is the hottest issue in basic and clinical sciences. There is no question that we need to gather and get inspired. With an outstanding list of speakers in this field, „Immune Regulation - Davos “ becomes the key event of the year 2008, being big enough to learn from other disciplines and small enough to personally meet the experts.
Davos has been stimulating not only for scientists, but also for other meetings such as the World Economic Forum, held every year in the same conference center. There will be long lunch breaks, allowing to digest attended symposia, to talk with colleagues, while enjoying the winter sports and landscape. The evening sessions will give young researchers the opportunity to meet senior scientists. As at other Davos meetings, we will come together for poster sessions with dinner, deserts and drinks providing a relaxed and stimulatory atmosphere for scientific exchange.

Davos is a winter-sports paradise for snowboarders and skiers from all over the world. The region provides 62 mountain transport facilities, 310 km of well-prepared slopes suited to all levels of skills.
The world`s first ski lift has been opened in Davos-Bolgen in 1934. In addition, cross country skiing, ice-sports, wonderful hiking routes or a romantic ride by horse-coach through the beautiful countryside are exciting possibilities offered to you in Davos. Ski slopes in Davos are open until the end of April.

As in last year, the organizing committee promises to present you a great scientific programme, a surprising social programme and a warm smile. Your contribution to the program and discussions will help us to achieve our goal.

Please visit our website for more information.
http://www.wirm.ch

Abstract submission started on the 1st of November, and the deadline is the 1st of December 2007.
Early registration deadline is the 1st of December 2007.

Best regards

Cezmi Akdis
On behalf of the organizers

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Prof. Dr. Cezmi A. Akdis
Director
Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF) Obere Strasse 22 CH-7270 Davos Switzerland

Tel:++41 81 4100848
(direct: ++41 81 4100841)
Fax:++41 81 4100840
e-mail: akdisac@siaf.uzh.ch
http://www.siaf.uzh.ch

World Immune Regulation Meeting
17-20 March 2008, Davos.