President’s Letter

With only 4.5 months till our Annual Meeting in Athens this would be a great time to encourage Early-Bird registrations (June 28th deadline) and Late Breaking abstract submissions (deadline August 31st) and we remain dedicated to providing support for our trainees. The organizers invited speakers program has come along nicely – but abstracts remain an important source of the speakers chosen and they will be included in the program in the coming days. It is also our awards season – and this year we had an exceptional slate of candidates for our Senior & Mid-Career awards (Judy Lieberman, Daniel Cua, Dusan Bogunovic, Jacob Yount, Daniela Novick and Brendan Jenkins), while we have had a record number of nominees for the junior awards (to be announced soon). Important opportunity to acknowledge those who took the time to nominate these candidates and the work of our awards committee in assessing these amazing cytokine biologists. [READ MORE]

As we prepare for our annual scientific meeting in Hawaii (www.hawaii.cytokinesociety.org) it is important to recognize the efforts of the organizing committee, chaired by James Turkson (Cedars Sinai Medical Center), to assemble a diverse scientific program with cutting edge research. For many of us, this will be our first in-person scientific meeting since the start of the COVID pandemic and will be an opportunity to reunite with international colleagues. The ability to hold this meeting in parallel with ILC4 and the Interferon lambda community workshop highlights the continued interest in cytokine biology. This is reflected in the overwhelming levels of sponsorship support that have been provided by our partners from biotech, pharma, scientific vendors, and foundations. This sponsorship has allowed the ICIS to provide 100 travel awards for trainees – an unprecedented recognition of the number and quality of abstracts submitted. .. [READ MORE]

As my official term as ICIS President started in October of 2021 I’d like to offer a special thank you to Sarah Gaffen (President-Elect), and Joan Oefner and Elizabeth Gray, who manage the affairs of the society for the support they have already shown. Thank you also to the ICIS Council, and all of the dedicated individuals who serve on our committees for their ongoing service. Thank you to Simon Jones and his co-organizers for taking on the challenge of our first “hybrid” meeting, and for organizing a wonderful program for the 2021 meeting in Cardiff. Of course, the inspirational leadership and patience shown by outgoing President Kate Fitzgerald over the last two years has provided a template for the society and helped to set our priorities. [READ MORE]

It has been an honor and privilege to serve as President of the ICIS. I want to express my gratitude to you all for your membership and the continued success of our conferences.
It has certainly been a unique time to lead the Society over the last two years. It seems in many ways, a seismic shift has occurred in all aspects of our lives, changing the way we live, work, and commune with each other. Yet despite the challenges, we see the progress and effectiveness of COVID-19 testing, vaccines that have been widely administered in the United States, Europe and around the world, and the hope of vaccines for young children and boosters on the horizon. The work of many of you has helped to continue to inform the response and treatments for this insidious virus. With variants continuing to surge, your work remains critically important as we continue to combat this and other emerging viruses in the future. [READ MORE]