As I pen my final letter as ICIS President, I reflect upon a busy and satisfying two years of shepherding this incredible organization that I am honored to be part of. Both of our annual meetings in Seoul, Korea and the present meeting in Seattle featured Nobel Laureates and Lasker winners, not to mention so many other leading lights and rising stars of all levels. Our trainees from around the world have shown us how terrific the future is in cytokine research, despite the challenges we are all experiencing. I have been privileged to serve as President, and the ICIS will be in outstanding hands with the leadership of Curt Horvath as President and Karen Mossman as the new President-Elect.
I want to thank some amazing people who made all our successes possible. Joan Oefner, our former Managing Director who retired last year, was a true force in shaping the success of ICIS. In her honor we have established a travel award endowment that will help deserving trainees attend the meeting. Taking over her position is Stephanie Flores, who just completed her first solo meeting with us. I have been so lucky to work with President-Elect Curt Horvath, who has been a trusted partner and voice of sanity throughout my term. The entire ICIS Council has been wonderful, especially Treasurer Dusan Bugonovic whose efforts behind the scenes have been invaluable and not always recognized, and Secretary Susan Carpenter, whose insightful contributions cannot be overestimated. Our Early Career Researchers both past and present bring a special vibe to the organization – doubtless they are our future leaders. Those who organize the conferences deserve a special shoutout for the enormous effort and responsibilities they assume –Ram Savan and Mike Gale remarkably took this on for a second time this year (after the 2020 meeting was forced to be virtual due to Covid). I want to thank all those who support the Society, especially our industry sponsors without whom none of this would be possible.
Perhaps the most significant change for the ICIS to occur in my term is the Society re-brand initiative, which is in its final stages. As outlined in a previous President Letter (August 30 2025), the ICIS Council felt for many reasons that the time is right to propose to adopt a new name, “The Cytokine Society”. We feel that this new name is better for many reasons. “The Cytokine Society” moniker is a simple and memorable, capturing all the areas of research and inquiry under our umbrella. This also does not easily lend itself to an acronym, mitigating confusion with similarly-abbreviated organizations and keeping our Cytokine “brand” front and center. Finally, ‘The Cytokine Society” name aligns with terminology in common use by our members. A new logo will encompass this sentiment by pairing with a flexible and descriptive tagline, such as in the example shown below. A final vote for this initiative by the membership will take place soon – Keep an eye out for your ballot.
Despite challenges, the Cytokine meetings have a bright future. We are holding exciting meetings all over the world: Cytokines2026 will be in Glasgow Scotland (Oct 18-21, 2026), Cytokines2027 in Sydney Australia (Sept, dates TBA, 2027), Cytokines2028 in Boston, USA (Nov 1-4) and Cytokines2029 (dates TBA) in Salamanca Spain. Stay up to date on future meetings here.
So, get your kilts and bagpipes ready, and “Haste ye back”, as the Scots like to say (“see you soon!”).
Locations of Future Cytokines meetings:
