Versiti - 2024 Immunology Symposium | Versiti Blood Research Institute
 

2024 Immunology Symposium

Advances in Innate Immunity

Advances in Innate Immunity

17th Annual Immunology Symposium

Versiti Blood Research Institute is proud to present the 17th Annual Immunology Symposium, “Advances in Innate Immunity.” This event brings together experts in the field of immunology to discuss innovative research, trends and recent discoveries that impact the field.

Date:Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024
Time:8 a.m. – 5 p.m.; reception to follow
Location:Versiti Blood Research Institute | 8727 W. Watertown Plank Rd., Milwaukee, WI 53226

Registration is closed.

Megan Baker
Research Program Coordinator
 
Theresa Alenghat, VMD, PhD

University of Cincinnati

Presentation: Regulation of the host-microbiota relationship

 
Jennifer Bando, PhD

Stanford University

Presentation: Regulating Intestinal Innate Lymphocytes in Immune Cell Aggregates

 
Barbara Kee, PhD

University of Chicago

Presentation: Understanding the transcriptional programming of innate-like lymphocytes during their development and activation

 
Jeffery Miller, MD

University of Minnesota

Presentation: Innate NK cells: Individual donor to off-the-shelf engineered iPSC products and in-vivo tri-specific killer engagers (TriKEs)

 
Gregory F. Sonnenberg, PhD

Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University

Presentation: Innate immune determinants of intestinal physiology, tolerance and inflammation

 
Eillen Tecle, PhD

Medical College of Wisconsin

Presentation: Purine nucleotide salvage enzymes regulate epithelial cell resistance to infection in C. elegans

 
Marcel van den Brink, MD, PhD

City of Hope Los Angeles and National Medical Center

Presentation: The role of the intestinal microbiome in cancer immunotherapy

 
Wayne Yokoyama, MD

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Presentation: Challenging the current paradigms explaining pathogenesis of autoimmunity

Subramaniam Malarkannan, PhD
Subramaniam Malarkannan, PhD

Nan Gardetto Chair for Immunotherapy
Senior Investigator, Versiti Blood Research Institute

Professor of Medicine, Department of Hematology and Oncology, Medical College of Wisconsin

Matthew Kudek, MD
Matthew Kudek, MD

Assistant Professor, Departments of Pediatrics, Microbiology, and Immunology, Medical College of Wisconsin

Associate Adjunct Investigator, Versiti Blood Research Institute

Featured Speakers and Topics

Brian R. Curtis, PhD, MS, D(ABMLI), MT(ASCP)SBB
Versiti Diagnostic Labs
Presentation: Jack's Contributions to Versiti Diagnostic Labs

David A. Margolis, MD
Medical College of Wisconsin, Children's Wisconsin
Presentation: Thank You, Jack Gorski!

Matthew Anderson, MD, PhD
Versiti Diagnostic Labs
Presentation: HLA "Matching" in the Genomics Era: From Antigens to Alleles to the MHC

Andrea Ferrante, MD, MBA
Eli Lilly & Col, Lily Biotechnology Center
Presentation: The Unfolding of a Story About Folding: How Understanding HLA Class II-Restricted Epitope Selection Has Been Impacting Drug Discovery

Elena Naumova, PhD
Tufts University
Presentation: TCRs Complexity, Fractality, and University


Event Materials

Featured Speakers and Topics

Joseph T. Barbieri, PhD
Medical College of Wisconsin
Presentation: The Clostridial Neurotoxins: Two Edged Swords

Bryon D. Johnson, PhD
Medical College of Wisconsin
Presentation: Engineering T Cells for Resistance to Immune Checkpoints

Debra Newman, PhD
Blood Research Institute, Versiti
Presentation: T cell regulation of, and by, PECAM-1

Subramaniam Malarkannan, PhD
Blood Research Institute, Versiti
Presentation: Matt’ereology: Single-cell Transcriptome Reveals Altered TME in Pancreatic Cancer Patients

Weiqing Jing, PhD
Blood Research Institute, Versiti
Presentation: T Cells Deficient in Diacylglycerol Kinase ζ Are Resistant to PD-1 Inhibition and Help Create Persistent Host Immunity to Leukemia

Erin Wesley, PhD
University of Minnesota
Presentation: Evaluation of NK Cells in Ovarian Cancer Patients with Cytomegalovirus Reactivation and Systemic Inflammation


Event Materials

Featured Speakers and Topics

Center for Immunology, Medical College of Wisconsin Graduate Student Invited Speaker:

Marco Colonna, MD
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Presentation: Innate Lymphoid Cells in Mucosal Immunity


Sun Hur, PhD
Harvard Medical School
Presentation: RIG-I-like Receptors and Inflammation

Egil Lien, PhD
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Pathogen Manipulation of Innate Immunity – Implications on Signaling and Cell Death

Jyotika Sharma, PhD
University of South Dakota
Presentation: Neutrophil Extracellular Traps: Formation and Therapeutic Implications

Jenifer Coburn, PhD
Medical College of Wisconsin
Presentation: Spirochetes Stealthily Sneak Around Innate Immunity

Suzanne Cassel, MD
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Presentation: NLRC4 Regulation of the Anti-Influenza Immune Response


Event Materials

Featured Speakers and Topics

Frederick W. Alt, PhD
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Director, Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital; Charles A. Janeway Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
Presentation: New Insights into Mechanisms that Generate Primary and Peripheral B Cell Repertoires

James E. Crowe, MD
Ann Scott Carell Chair; Professor of Pediatrics, Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology; Director, Vanderbuilt Vaccine Center, Vanerbuilt University School of Medicine
Presentation: Molecular and Genetic Basis for Development of Broad and Potent Neutralizing Antibodies

Gary J. Nabel, MD, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer, Senior Vice President, Sanofi
Presentation: Development of Trispecific Antibodies for AIDS and Cancer

William Schief, PhD
Professor of Immunology and Microbial Science, The Scripps Research Institute
Presentation: Germline-Targeting Vaccine Design for HIV

Betty Diamond, MD
Head, The Center of Autoimmune Musculoskeletal and Hematopoietic Diseases, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
Presentation: Origins of Autoreactive B cells in Systemic Lupus

Demin Wang, PhD
John B. and Judith A. Gardetto Chair for Cancer Research, Senior Investigator, Blood Research Institute, Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin
Presentation: B Cell and Antibody Response in Heparin-induced Thrombocytopenia


Event Materials

Featured Speakers and Topics

Mark M. Davis, PhD: New Tools for T cells
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology; Director, Stanford Institute for Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection; Member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS); Stanford University School of Medicine
Presentation: A Window on Many Human Diseases

Ming Li, PhD
Professor, Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School; Professor, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences; Principal Investigator/Member, Immunology Program; Faculty Scholar, Howard Hughes Medical Institute/Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Presentation: Tolerance and Immunity in Health and Cancer

Edward M. Behrens, MD
Joseph Lee Hollander Associate Professor in Pediatric Rheumatology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania; Division Chief of Rheumatology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Presentation: Toward Developing a Precision Approach to the Cytokine Storm

Yi-Guang Chen, PhD: Genetic Control of Type 1 Diabetes
Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Endocrinology), Microbiology and Immunology; Medical College of Wisconsin
Presentation: Learning From the NOD Mouse

Gail Bishop, PhD
Professor of Microbiology and Internal Medicine; Director, Center for Immunology and Immune-Based Diseases; Associate Director for Basic Science Research, Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center; Holden Chair of Cancer Biology, The University of Iowa
Presentation: TRAF3 & B Cells: Understanding Biology to Inform Treatment of B Cell Malignancies

Arup Chakraborty, PhD
Director of Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), Robert T. Haslam Professor of Chemical Engineering; Professor of Physics, Chemistry, and Biological Engineering; Member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Presentation: How to Hit HIV Where it Hurts


Event Materials

Featured Speakers and Topics:

Ronald Germain, MD, PhD: Imaging Immunity
NIH Distinguished Investigator; Chief, Laboratory of Systems Biology and Lymphocyte Biology Section; Acting Chief, Laboratory of Immunology; Associate Director, Trans-NIH Center for Human Immunology; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health
Presentation: Creating a Spatiotemporal Understanding of Host Defense

Vera Tarakanova, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Medical College of Wisconsin
Presentation: Interferon Regulatory Factor 1: a B Cell Brake in Gammaherpevirus Infection

Patrick Wilson, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Section of Rheumatology, Knapp Center for Lupus and Immunology Research, University of Chicago
Presentation: Human Immune Memory to Influenza

David Brooks, PhD
Senior Scientist, Scotiabank Research Chair in Inflammation, Princess Margaret Cancer Center, University Health Network; Associate Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Toronto
Presentation: Exploiting the Underlying Mechanisms of Immune Exhaustion: Modulating the Environment to Fix the Parts

Jyothi Rengarajan, PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases and Emory Vaccine Center, Emory University School of Medicine
Presentation: Host Biomarkers of Tuberculosis Immunity

Gabriel Núñez, MD
Paul de Kruif Endowed Professor, Inflammation and Immunology; Co-Director, Immunology and Host Response Program; Professor, Department of Pathology, University of Michigan School of Medicine
Presentation: Linking Pathogen Virulence, Host Immunity and the Microbiota


Event Materials

Featured Speakers and Topics:

Alexander Chervonsky, MD, PhD
Professor, Department of Pathology, The University of Chicago
Presentation: Autoimmunity and Microbiota

Duane Wesemann, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Presentation: Insights into the Establishment and Function of the Primary Immunoglobulin Repertoire

Cathryn Nagler, PhD
Bunning Food Allergy Professor, Department of Pathology, Medicine and the College, The University of Chicago
Presentation: Innate Immune Regulation of Sensitization to Dietary Antigens by Commensal Bacteria

Veena Taneja, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Immunology, Mayo Clinic
Presentation: Gut Microbes- Friendly Residents or the Enemy Within

Christian Jobin, PhD
Professor, College of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, University of Florida
Presentation: How Inflammation Influences Colorectal Cancer: It is All About Bugs

Nita Salzman, MD, PhD
Professor, Children’s Research Institute, Medical College of Wisconsin
Presentation: Two Sides to Intestinal Homeostasis: Roles for Both Host and Microbial Antimicrobial Peptides


Event Materials

Featured Speakers and Topics:

Ellen Robey, PhD
Professor, Immunology and Pathogenesis, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California Berkeley
Presentation: Visualizing T Cell Selection in the Thymus

David Rawlings, MD
Director, Center for Immunity and Immunotherapies, Seattle Children’s Research Institute; Professor of Pediatrics, University of Washington
Presentation: Altered B Cell Signaling Orchestrates Loss of Tolerance and Systemic Autoimmunity

Harvey Lodish, PhD
Member, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research; Professor, Biology and Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Presentation: Self-Renewal of Human Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells: New Drugs to Treat Bone Marrow Failure Disorders and Other Erythropoietin-Resistant Anemias

Anjana Rao, PhD
Professor, Division of Signaling and Gene Expression, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology
Presentation: TET Proteins, 5-Methylcytosine Oxidation and Cancer

Cornelis Murre, PhD
Distinguished Professor, Molecular Biology, University of California San Diego
Presentation: 3D-Trajectories Adopted by Coding and Regulatory DNA Elements in Developing Lymphocytes


Event Materials

Featured Speakers and Topics:

Stanley Riddell, MD
Professor, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington School of Medicine
Presentation: Engineering Defined T Cell Cancer Therapeutics with Gene Transfer

Crystal MacKall, MD
Head, Immunology Section, Pediatric Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute
Presentation: Chimeric Antigen Receptor Based Adoptive T Cell Therapy for Cancer: Progress and Challenges

Pramod Srivastava, MD, PhD
Director, Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Connecticut
Presentation: Search for Truly Tumor-Specific Antigens

Linheng Li, PhD
Professor, Stowers Institute, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Presentation: Niche, Signaling, Epigenetic Regulation of Stem Cells

Stuart Orkin, MD
Chair, Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School
Presentation: Making Sense of Heterogeneity in the Hematopoietic System


Event Materials

Immunology in the form of immunohematology was a key component of the activity of the early “Milwaukee Blood Center,” which eventually became Versiti. The discovery of the role of human leukocyte antigens (HLA) on platelets in transfusion led to HLA typing to match platelet donors. This led to Versiti Blood Center being selected as the national depository for rare bone marrow donor types, which evolved into the National Marrow Donor program. In 1979, Versiti Blood Center investigators discovered a new HLA histocompatibility system, now known as HLA-DQ. With its expertise in HLA, Versiti Blood Center was able to facilitate the first unrelated bone marrow transplant in 1981. It was an early adopter of T- cell typing and was one of the first institutions in the U.S. to implement molecular genetic-based HLA typing. Today’s Versiti continues to provide expanded HLA typing using high-throughput DNA sequencing.

Immunologists at the BRI currently conduct cutting-edge research in cancer, infectious disease and autoimmunity. Investigators are developing new methods for eradicating cancer by using novel immunotherapies. In infectious disease, the work by BRI immunologists studying how the immune system recognizes and responds to viruses is opening new avenues for the treatment and prevention of viral infections. Studies in autoimmunity include how B and T lymphocytes contribute to and regulate autoimmunity.

The immunology community at BRI/MCW is well organized and in addition to the yearly Immunology Symposium, now in its 14th year, offers a variety of training opportunities. These include both pre-doctoral graduate courses and advanced training in clinical immunology. The immunology faculty also facilitate a weekly journal club, a weekly work-in-progress and a yearly internal conference/retreat.

The strength of and leading role of Immunology on the Medical College campus has led to the founding of the Center for Immunology, which is dedicated to helping translate our understanding of basic research to problems faced by Medical College physicians.

 
Versiti Blood Research Institute Articles
Research articles that explore Versiti Blood Research Institute investigators and their expertise in blood health innovation.
 
Our Investigators
Browse our Investigators, Emeritus Investigators, and other members of the Blood Research Institute.
 
Scientific Programs
Scientific research and training are important parts of Versiti’s mission. Our research programs involve basic and clinical scientists at Versiti Blood Research Institute.
 
Versiti Blood Research Institute
Versiti Blood Research Institute investigators study blood disorders like hemophilia, blood cancers like leukemia, and other blood diseases.