By Sarah Gaffen and Curt Horvath
Drs. Gaffen and Horvath are the President and President-Elect of the Cytokine Society
September 3, 2025
IT’S ALMOST HERE, CYTOKINES2025! As the summer winds down and the academic year approaches, THE Cytokine event of the year is rapidly approaching. So much has happened to us all in the year since we met in Seoul Korea for Cytokines2024, and we are eager and excited to welcome you all to Seattle for Cytokines2025.
The Scientific Organizing Committee has arranged and exceptional meeting featuring over 100 talks, 235 poster presentations, plus ample coffee breaks, receptions, and vendor exhibits that will be filled with lively scientific discussions, all in the wonderful city of Seattle. Speakers include Nobel laureates, Lasker Award winners, National Academy of Science members, Fellows of the Royal Society, and YOU – our colleagues, friends and trainees in the cytokine community around the world. To help make this happen, the ICIS has awarded 49 travel awards, and a slate of honors and awards to our members. Congratulations to all our outstanding award winners! We are extremely grateful to our generous sponsors and exhibitors, many of them will be at the meeting waiting to speak to you about new technologies and applications in cytokine biology.
One highlight will be the Early Career Researcher (ECR) Networking event held on Monday, November 3. It is organized by the ECR committee led by co-chairs Dr. Rami Bechara (University of Paris) and Dr. Kevin Lee (University of Melbourne). Held early in the meeting in a casual reception format, this is a relaxed and fun opportunity for trainees and early career PIs to find new collaborators, new connections, and often new friends. Be sure to attend!
Exciting News about a Cytokine Society Rebrand initiative
We are excited to share with the membership a new initiative to rebrand the name of the society.
The History: The International Cytokine and Interferon Society, often called ICIS, was created in 2013 to unite and pay homage to the history and priorities of two organizations, the International Cytokine Society and the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research. The merger was highly successful, and in the ensuing 12 years our stature and footprint have grown impressively. This is a testament to the strength of the founder organizations and ongoing commitment of our members to participate and take leadership roles in the organization. The merger created something bigger and better than the sum of its parts.
In subsequent years the acronym ICIS has proven to have unforeseen limitations. We recognize that our Society’s purpose is to facilitate interactions and promote dissemination of information across the entire field – encompassing interleukins and interferons, as well as chemokines, pattern recognition receptors, growth factors, and other signaling paradigms. We also include the cells, receptor systems, and biomedical applications in health and disease. We believe name of the Society should capture that broader message. Most members already refer to us as “the Cytokine Society” and our conferences as “The Cytokine Meeting” or simply “Cytokines[year]”. Finally, the abbreviation ICIS does not rise to the top of search engines, and as an acronym carries potentially troublesome political connotations, both of which make it hard to establish an easily identifiable brand and distract from our mission.
The Proposal: Accordingly, the ICIS Council LINK has unanimously agreed that it is time to refresh our image and adopt the new name, “The Cytokine Society”. This new name satisfies the above concerns. It is distinct from the two founder organizations, and does not easily lend itself to an acronym, keeping our Cytokine “brand” front and center. This aligns well with terminology already in common use by our members. This name change also mitigates any confusion with similarly-abbreviated organizations. The international nature of our organization would be implicit by the use of “The” in the name and “The Cytokine Society” moniker is a simple and memorable name that captures all the areas of research and inquiry under our umbrella. A new logo will encompass this sentiment by pairing with a flexible and descriptive tagline, such as in the example shown here, though a final logo design will be developed at a later date. 
The Process and Timeline: We acknowledge that changing something as important as the name may trigger a sense of lost history. We propose this name change not in order to diminish any one group, but rather to be inclusive of our broader community.
In that spirit, the by-laws require an extended timeline to allow ample opportunity to engage in an open dialogue.
- In April 2025, the ICIS Council discussed the proposal to change the Society name, and unanimously approved a motion to put the proposal forward for a vote by the Council.
- In July 2025, the ICIS Council voted unanimously to put this proposal to the membership.
- At the annual Business meeting to be held at 10:50am on Wednesday, November 5, just prior to the conclusion of Cytokines2025, there will be some time for open discussion from the membership. We encourage ICIS members to consider this carefully and discuss with each other the implications of such a move.
- Within approximately a month, and electronic online ballot will be distributed to members to ratify this name change, requiring a two-thirds majority vote.
If approved, staff will develop logo designs, taglines, and brand guidelines, and the new name and branding will launch in early 2026. Please be sure to keep an eye out for the ballot – and exercise your privilege as Society member to vote.