Signals+ Editors: Howard Young, Marta Catalfamo, Saurabh Chattopadhyay, Zhian Chen, Daniella Schwartz & Di Yu
Cytokine and growth factor standards and reference reagents available from the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control are on the Society’s Website: https://cytokinesociety.org/standards/ A wide range of WHO International …
The ICIS-Pfizer Award for Excellence in Interferon and Cytokine Research (formerly the Seymour & Vivian Milstein Award from 1988 – 2020), represents the pinnacle of scientific achievement in interferon and cytokine research since 1988, two years after interferon was first approved for the treatment of hairy cell leukemia. Since that time, it has been widely recognized that interferons and the larger class of cytokines play critical roles in the development and progression of many major diseases including cancer, viral diseases such as hepatitis and influenza, and autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis and lupus.
All ICIS member trainees (students, postdocs and fellows) are invited to apply for a Pfizer Trainee Award at the time of abstract submission, before the June 1, 2021 deadline.
Up to four (4) trainees with the highest scoring abstracts as per the scientific review committee, will be awarded $1,250 each and will be invited to give an oral presentation at Cytokines 2021 Hybrid Meeting, recognized as a PfizerTrainee Presentation, in the most appropriate session based on topic.
The ICIS-Biolegend William E. Paul Award for Excellence in Cytokine Research is dedicated to William E. Paul, M.D., who died on September 18, 2015 at age 79. Dr. Paul’s extraordinary contributions to the field of cytokine research are best summarized by this paper published in the Journal of Immunology on December 15, 2015.
This award was established in 2016 and is given to an investigator that has made significant contributions to cytokine and interferon research throughout their career through the generosity of BioLegend.
This award generously supported by Luminex Corporation, recognizes a mid-career investigator who has made outstanding contributions to the field of interferon or cytokine biology. The awardee will receive a $5,000 cash prize to include meeting registration and travel support to the ICIS annual meeting for presentation of his or her research in an award lecture. The award is named after Dr. John R (Jack) Kettman, an immunologist who was instrumental in the development of Luminex’s technologies and the Luminex Corporation.
The newly established ICIS Mentorship Award recognizes ICIS members who have made significant and sustained contributions to the career development of trainees and to the profession through outstanding mentoring. This award is based on the training experiences and success of the nominee’s mentees, not the mentor’s personal career achievements. For the purpose of this award, mentoring is defined as the process of guiding, supporting, and promoting the training and career development of others. A minimum of three mentees will write a supporting letter on how this person has impacted their development, career and lives, to be submitted together by one of the mentees (an ICIS member).
The ICIS will on occasion bestow this honor on an ICIS member who has made an extraordinary contribution to the Society. The individual will have devoted significant time and energy over a period of years to elevating the goals of the Society in furthering research on interferon, cytokines and chemokines. Nominations should be communicated to the Awards Committee of the ICIS.
Nominations are solicited for Honorary Life Memberships in the ICIS. Each year an individual will be awarded Life Membership as a tribute to his/her contributions to the field. Nominees should be individuals who have made substantive contributions to the cytokine/chemokine/interferon field over much of their careers, either in basic, clinical or applied research. Honorary members are esteemed members of the Society and provide us with an historical perspective and valued research tradition. Honorary Life Members are accorded all rights and privileges of active members, are exempted from Society dues and are listed in the dedicated Honorary Life Members section of the Society web site. The winner(s) is elected by vote of the ICIS Council and will be an invited speaker(s) at the next ICIS meeting.
The Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Biomedical Science celebrate the contributions of immigrant scientists to biomedical research and discovery in the United States
The Vilcek Foundation has announced the recipients of the 2021 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Biomedical Science. Ruth Lehmann, director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research is the recipient of the 2021 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science. The 2021 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science are presented to Mohamed Abou Donia, Ibrahim Cissé, and Silvi Rouskin.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, several groups of scientists proposed IFN- as a potential therapy for SARS-CoV-2 infection (O’Brien et al., Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2020; Prokunina-Olsson et al., Journal of Experimental Medicine, 2020). That suggestion was based on evidence that the IFN- family provides important first-line immunological defense against viral respiratory tract infections and data indicating that SARS-CoV-2 induces weak expression of IFNs. There are no licensed IFN- therapeutics, however, pegylated-interferon lambda 1, which was shown to be safe and effective in testing among >3,000 patients with chronic viral hepatitis infections, is available as an investigational agent through Eiger Biopharmaceuticals. Several phase 2 clinical trials have been launched to assess the safety and efficacy of pegylated-IFN-1 for treatment or prevention of SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19. Findings from two trials are now available.