Member Highlight Interview with Christopher Hunter, Ph.D., Immediate Past President of the ICIS

The opportunity to attend and present at the meetings allowed me to showcase what the laboratory does that is unique. This was so helpful to meet other cytokine biologists who became collaborators and friends. The opportunity to organize the annual meeting was also a professional opportunity to develop networking skills and provide a welcoming forum for cytokine biologists.

Please tell us your name, degree, where you currently work, position. Christopher Hunter, Ph.D., Professor, University of Pennsylvania Where did you do your training? B.Sc. and Ph.D., University of Glasgow with post-doctoral fellowships at Glasgow and then Stanford. Briefly, what is your research about? I have worked on parasitic systems throughout my career and focused on how they interface with the immune system. These are terrific experimental systems to understand how cytokines mediate the balance between protective and pathological immunity and how different micro-organisms exploit and evade the immune response. Tell us your thoughts about ICIS: how has being involved in the Cytokine Society help your career? The opportunity to attend and present at the meetings allowed me to showcase what the laboratory does that is unique. This was so helpful to meet other cytokine biologists who became collaborators and friends. The opportunity to organize the annual meeting was also a professional opportunity to develop networking skills and provide a welcoming forum for cytokine biologists. Are there any particular friendships or collaborations that came specifically out of Cytokines meetings? Too many to list them all – really there are dozens of individuals. But, working with Kate Fitzgerald only came about through the ICIS while Simon Jones was someone I would only have met through the ICIS and we have now done several joint projects. What Cytokines meeting(s) have been your favorites? Tell us about any special memories or anecdotes. Again, there have been so many high-quality meetings. The Hawaii meeting was notable because it was our first gathering post-pandemic and there was such a great scientific program. The type III IFN satellite meeting that was associated with the meeting was also a standout for how interactive it was. The online meeting in Cardiff in 2021 was still in the midst of the pandemic but a small group of us managed to gather to try and give a feeling of active engagement. What do you like to do when not in the lab? I think you mean when not in the office! Biking and fishing. A day on the ocean is always worthwhile. What is the best life/career advice you’ve ever received? Do the experiment! It’s hard to move a project forward without data. Also – being encouraged to write the paper – it is never too early. What book or TV show are you reading/watching right now that you recommend? My guilty pleasure is Science Fiction and the Zombie Apocalypse. I loved “Welcome to Wrexham” – I was surprised at how authentically it captures what it means to support a small football club. What are your favorite cytokines? Whatever it is that we are working on currently – but clearly IFN-gamma and IL-27 while all the IL-1 and TNF family members are so important! And the common gamma chain cytokines – so basically everything. I do not like IL-14!