Monday, May 9

Major Symposium E

Tumor Microenvironment 

Chairs

• Shannon J. Turley, Genentech
• Nikhil S. Joshi, Yale Univ. Sch. of Med.

Speakers

• Assaf Magen, Icahn Sch. of Med. at Mount Sinai, mregDC/T helper niches enable local reactivation of CD8⁺ T cells upon PD-1 blockade
• Nikhil S. Joshi, Yale Univ. Sch. of Med., Investigating T cell responses in engineered cancer models
• Greg M. Delgoffe, UPMC Hillman Cancer Ctr., Control of T cell differentiation by tumor microenvironment metabolism
• Shannon J. Turley, Genentech, Stromal-immune niches in cancer, inflammation, and immunotherapy
• Ming O. Li, Mem. Sloan Kettering Cancer Ctr., Immunological mechanisms of cancer defense

Major Symposium F

B Cell Responses in Non-Lymphoid Tissues

Chairs

• Jennifer L. Gommerman, Univ. of Toronto, Canada
• Jeffrey L. Browning, Boston Univ. Sch. of Med.

Speakers

• Thomas Korn, Tech. Univ. of Munich, Germany, Building and controlling B cell niches in the CNS
• S. Rameeza Allie, Penn State Col. of Med., Resident memory B cells in the frontline of respiratory immunity
• Brad H. Nelson, BC Cancer–Victoria, Canada, Tumor-infiltrating B cells from diagnosis to end-stage disease in ovarian cancer
• Tullia C. Bruno, Univ. of Pittsburgh Sch. of Med., Exploring differential functions of B cells and tertiary lymphoid structures in human cancer
• F. Eun-Hyung Lee, Emory Univ., The bone marrow microniche and the maturation of human long-lived plasma cells
• Jennifer L. Gommerman, Univ. of Toronto, Canada, B cells and grey matter injury in an animal model of multiple sclerosis

Block Symposia

• CD4⁺ T Cell Regulation and Responses: Molecular Mechanisms

   Room C123–124

• Mechanisms of Viral Sensing and Innate Immune Responses

   Oregon Ballroom 202

• Microbiota and Epithelial Interactions

   Room A105–106

• Tissue Inflammation

   Room A107–109

Chalking Up Success: The All-Important Chalk Talk and Preparing for a Faculty Interview

Chairs

• Leslie J. Berg, Univ. of Colorado Sch. of Med.
• Bethany B. Moore, Univ. of Michigan

Speaker

• Bethany B. Moore, Univ. of Michigan

Panelists

• Adam H. Courtney, Univ. of Michigan
• Jenna Guthmiller, Univ. of Colorado Sch. of Med.
• Brina S. Lopez, Midwestern Univ.

This session will focus on strategies to help you successfully navigate the faculty application process. You will learn how to develop your teaching and research statements, tailor your application to the position, and prepare for an interview and chalk talk. A panel of early career faculty will also present their recent application experiences and advice for success. This session is open to anyone but is especially intended for student and postdoctoral attendees. 

Exhibitor Workshop: Slingshot Biosci., Inc.

Synthetic Cells are the Ideal Surrogate Control

Speaker

• Jeffrey Kim, Ph.D., CEO and President

Flow cytometry has significantly advanced over the last 30 years; however, finding the ideal reference cell controls remains burdensome. Slingshot Biosciences has developed a breakthrough approach to creating synthetic cell controls to match the optical, fluorescence, and biochemical features of real cells. In this workshop, we will show how TruCytes™ biomarker cell mimics enable researchers to achieve greater reliability in their data, advance towards more quantitative measurements, and ultimately have more confidence and quality control of their results.

Exhibitor Workshop: Sony Biotech., Inc.

Multi-omics Profiling of Immune Effector Programs and Notch Dependencies in Thymic Intraepithelial Lymphocyte

Speaker

• Cynthia Guidos, Ph.D., Sr. Scientist, Developmental, & Stem Cell Biology, Hosp. for Sick Kids, Canada

CD8αα intraepithelial T cells (CD8αα IEL) are highly abundant gut resident TCRαβ cells that modulate metabolism, epithelial repair, and anti-microbial immune responses in the small intestine. They are cytotoxic, “innate-like” (also known as unconventional) type 1 immune effector cells that express CD122 (Il2rb), natural killer receptors (NKR) and require Tbet, encoded by Tbx21 for their maturation. CD8αα IEL are produced from TCRαβ+ CD122+ IEL precursor (IELp) thymocytes, are CD4- CD8- double-negative (DN), and differentially express agonist signaling markers such as PD1, gut homing b7 integrins, the NKR encoded by Klrb1c (NK1.1), and Tbet. However, the immune effector programs and molecular regulators of these distinct DN IELp subsets are poorly characterized, in part because of their low abundance. In this study, we sorted TCR αβ+ CD122+ DN IELp thymocytes and used sc-RNAseq to identify PD1+ Tbet-, PD1- Tbetlo a4b7+, and PD1- Tbethi NKR+ subsets that differentially expressed proliferation, immune effector, and regulatory genes. We also defined distinct ontogenies for each subset and demonstrated that development of PD1- Tbetlo a4b7+ cells was severely compromised by Cd4-Cre-induced inactivation of Notch signaling in double positive (DP) thymocytes. Collectively, this work provides new perspectives on the intrathymic development and immune programming of DN IELp and defines physiologically activated Notch signaling as a critical microenvironmental regulator of their differentiation from DP thymocytes.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH Symposium

Computational Modeling: Novel Insights into Immunity to Infections or Vaccines

Chairs

• Veronika I. Zarnitsyna, Emory Univ.
• Frederick A. Matsen IV, Fred Hutch Cancer Res. Ctr.

Speakers

• Veronika I. Zarnitsyna, Emory Univ., Waning of protective immunity after viral infection and vaccination
• Frederick A. Matsen IV, Fred Hutch Cancer Res. Ctr., Mechanistic insights about V(D)J recombination from statistical inference on high-throughput T cell receptor data
• Emily R. Miraldi, Cincinnati Children’s Hosp. Med. Ctr., Dynamic gene regulatory network models of human response to influenza virus
• Shannon M. Miller, Inimmune Corp. and Univ. of Montana, Vaccine adjuvant comparison: building a functional response database for computational modeling

Block Symposia

• Cytokine and Regulatory Cell Control of Autoimmunity

   Room A105–106

• Food Allergy, Atopic Dermatitis, and Mast Cells, Oh My!

   Oregon Ballroom 202

• Innate Immune Response to Infection

   Room A107–109

• Innate Lymphocytes and Innate-Like T Cells in Cancer

   Oregon Ballroom 203

• Macrophages, Myeloid, and Dendritic Cells in Tumor Immunity and Immunotherapy

   Oregon Ballroom 201

Society for Mucosal Immunology (SMI) Symposium

Host–Microbiota Interactions at Mucosal Barriers

Chairs

• Theresa Alenghat, Cincinnati Children’s Hosp. Med. Ctr.
• Lauren A. Zenewicz, Univ. of Oklahoma Hlth. Sci. Ctr.

Speakers

• Irene Salinas, Univ. of New Mexico, From water to land: evolution of mucosal immune systems in vertebrates
• Timothy W. Hand, UPMC Children’s Hosp. of Pittsburgh,, Immune responses to microbiota colonization of the intestine
• Theresa Alenghat, Cincinnati Children’s Hosp. Med. Ctr., Regulation of the host–microbiota relationship
• Mariana X. Byndloss, Vanderbilt Univ. Med. Ctr., Disruption of microbiota and intestinal epithelial interactions as a key driver of noncommunicable diseases

How to Have a Successful Postdoctoral Experience

Chair

• Mary T. Litzinger, AAI

Speaker

• Sofie R. Kleppner, Stanford Univ.

A postdoctoral fellowship is the time to develop research skills you will need to succeed as an independent scientist.  It is also an important opportunity to prepare for a career path at the same time. This session will highlight ways of getting the most out of your postdoctoral fellowship, how to successfully relate with your mentor, and how to use the resources available to you to ensure that your training prepares you adequately for a seamless transition into the next phase of your career.

AAI Vanguard Lecture

Sponsored by the AAI Minority Affairs Committee

Chair 

• Tonya J. Webb, Univ. of Maryland Sch. of Med., AAI Minority Affairs Committee Chair 

Speaker 

Cherié L. Butts
Biogen
Concept to approved drug: why immunologists are critical when developing new medicines

Presented by an AAI member selected by the Minority Affairs Committee for their scientific achievement and exemplary career success

Exhibitor Workshop: Bio-Rad Lab., Inc.

Use of StarBright Antibodies to Phenotype Novel Knockout Mice

Speaker

• Michelle Lennartz, Ph.D., Prof., Albany Med. Col.

Knockout mice are valuable tools for studying infection and immune signaling.  However, one must ensure that the gene loss does not have unanticipated effects.  We used StarBright antibody cocktails to determine the effects of global or myeloid specific deletion of the oncogene protein kinase C epsilon on immune cell composition and myeloid cell receptor expression. A combined lymphoid myeloid panel, consisting of 11 antibodies, provided a complete picture of the cell types and their representation in spleen and blood. Peritoneal and bone marrow macrophages were interrogated for surface expression of Fc and scavenger receptors and the toll-like receptors.

AAI President’s Symposium

Generously supported by GSK

From Fundamental Investigation to Revolutions in Health Care:
Stories of Immunological Discovery

Chair

• Gary A. Koretzky, Cornell Univ. and Weill Cornell Med., AAI President (2021–2022)

Speakers

AAI Excellence in Mentoring Award Presentation

Chair

• Gary A. Koretzky, Cornell Univ. and Weill Cornell Med., AAI President (2021–2022) 

Award Recipient

Ruslan Medzhitov
HHMI, Yale Univ. Sch. of Med. 

AAI President Gary A. Koretzky and Gregory M. Barton, Univ. of California, Berkeley, will introduce the awardee and present the award prior to the start of the President’s Symposium.

The AAI Excellence in Mentoring Award recognizes exemplary career contributions to a future generation of scientists. 

Block Symposia

• Innate Immune Sensing and Signaling

   Room B117–119

• Neonatal Mucosal Immunity

   Room B110–112

Exhibitor Workshop: STEMCELL Technol. Inc.

Next-Generation Culture & Isolation Tools to Advance Your T Cell Research

Speakers

• Amanda Vanden Hoek, Ph.D., Sr. Product Manager, Immunology
• Vesna Posarac, MSc, Sr. Scientist

Due to their central role in the adaptive immune response to cancer and foreign pathogens, T cells continue to be a focal point of both fundamental and translational research. Staying at the forefront of these rapidly evolving fields requires adopting more efficient, scalable processes. We will introduce new manual and automated platforms to efficiently isolate T cells and other immune cells from large-volume samples. We will also discuss strategies to expand T cells with high yield. These next-generation tools will enable researchers to streamline and accelerate their human T cell research.

Exhibitor Workshop: Fluidigm Corporation

Innovations in Deep Immune Profiling with High-Content Cytometry That Are Advancing Clinical Research: Case Studies

Speaker

• Andrew Quong, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer

The Fluidigm® CyTOF® XT™ and the Hyperion™ Imaging System provide powerful tools for deep immune profiling of cell suspensions and tissue that are easy to use and enable the needed throughput and data quality required for large translational and clinical research studies. Fluidigm will present case studies detailing how the Maxpar® Direct™ Immune Profiling Assay™ was used for large studies following subjects over time and at multiple sites of sample acquisition. In addition, case studies exploring the highly complex tissue microenvironment and its impact in infectious disease and cancer will be presented.

Monday in the AAI Booth

• Public Policy Fellows
• Minority Affairs Committee (MAC)
• Program Committee Members

Poster Session

Korean Association of Immunologists (KAI) and Association of Korean Immunologists in America (AKIA) Symposium

Driving Forces of Humoral Immunity and Pathology

Chairs

• Sang-Il Lee, Gyeongsang Nat. Univ. Hosp., South Korea
• Woong-Kyung Suh, Montreal Clin. Res. Inst., Canada

Speakers

• You Jeong Lee, Seoul Nat. Univ., South Korea, Thymic plasma cells secrete natural IgE and promote food anaphylaxis by enhancing mast cell survival
• Cheong-Hee Chang, Univ. of Michigan, The role of iron homeostasis for naïve T cell survival and maintenance
• Sun Jung Kim, Feinstein Inst. of Med. Res., Increased mitochondrial metabolism is required for immunologic function in age-associated B cells
• Ji Eun Oh, Korea Advanced Inst. of Sci. and Tech., South Korea, Humoral immunity in different mucosal systems

International Society of Developmental and Comparative Immunology (ISDCI) Symposium

Insights into Immune Evolution from Comparative Immune Approaches

Chairs

• Ayelet Voskoboynik, Stanford Med. and Hopkins Marine Station
• Michael F. Criscitiello, Texas A&M Univ.

Speakers

• Ayelet Voskoboynik, Stanford Med. and Hopkins Marine Station, Transplantation reactions in Botryllus schlosseri: co-evolution of stem cells and immunity
• Hanover Matz, Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore, B cell selection sites in the nurse shark spleen may represent evolutionary precursors of mammalian germinal centers
• Daniel R. Barreda, Univ. of Alberta, Canada, Fever as an ancient modulator of immune function
• Michael F. Criscitiello, Texas A&M Univ., Natural history of immunoglobulin surrogate light chains and the heavy chain third complementarity determining region

Block Symposia

• CD8⁺ T Cells in Cancer

   Oregon Ballroom 201

• Molecular Regulation of Innate and Cytotoxic Lymphocyte Responses

   Room C123–124

• Mucosal Immune Regulatory Mechanisms

   Room B117–119

AAI-Steinman Award for Human Immunology Research Presentation and Lecture

Chair

• Gary A. Koretzky, Cornell Univ. and Weill Cornell Med., AAI President (2021–2022) 

Award Recipient

Jeffrey A. Bluestone
Univ. of California, San Francisco, and Sonoma Biotherapeutics 
Immune tolerance: the long road to finding the holy grail

AAI President Gary A. Koretzky will introduce the awardee and present the award immediately prior to Dr. Bluestone’s lecture.

The AAI-Steinman Award for Human Immunology Research recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to the understanding of immune processes underlying human disease pathogenesis, prevention, or therapy.

Distinguished Lecture—Yasmine Belkaid

Chair

• Cathryn R. Nagler, Univ. of Chicago, AAI Program Committee Chair

Speaker

Yasmine Belkaid
NIAID, NIH
Control of tissue immunity and repair by the microbiota

IMMUNOLOGY2022™ Gala

Generously supported by Biolegend

The IMMUNOLOGY2022™ Gala will be held at the Portland Art Museum. The Portland Art Museum features outstanding exhibits ranging from modern trends to historic art periods. Take part in interactive exhibits, view films, or gaze at classic pieces. The museum shop will also be open. Uniquely, the Portland Art Museum recognizes and honors the Indigenous communities–past, present, and future—of the region on whose ancestral lands it stands. Attendees will have access to the full museum. Food and drinks will be available, and as is the Gala’s tradition, you will have the opportunity to express yourself on the Grand Ballroom dance floor!

Tickets will be available for purchase during the online registration process.