2014 ASI Annual Scientific Meeting

The ASI (Australasian Society for Immunology) Annual Scientific Meeting has joined forces with several clinically oriented societies this year to bring bench and bedside researchers together for one big immunological event. ASI2014 will be held from 1-5 December at the beachside Novotel Northbeach Wollongong, located an 80-minute drive from Sydney.

The meeting serves as a forum for local immunology researchers to showcase their work and to build relationships and collaborations. The meeting will encompass tumour immunology, infection, mucosal immunology, tissue specific inflammation, fundamental leucocyte behaviour, signalling and the latest technological developments. Keynote speakers include the legendary Professor Ron Germain and Nobel laureate Professor Bruce Beutler.

On the first day, TSANZ (the Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand) will be hosting a workshop on regulatory T cells in human trials. Qizhi Tang of UCSF, a pioneer of the T cell therapy, will be a keynote speaker. The fourth day will be ‘Autoimmunity Day’, on which a number of local and international clinical autoimmunity specialists, including Professor Virginia Pascual, will be featured. The event will provide students with an educational postgraduate workshop and a function aimed at facilitating interactions between students and plenary speakers. Other highlights include the annual ‘Lafferty Debate’ and the conference dinner limerick competition.

The Tenth Human Leucocyte Differentiation Antigen Workshop (HLDA10), being held concurrently from 1-2 December, adds a translational focus to the week. The outcomes of the workshops are the provision of CD nomenclature for validated monoclonal antibodies. HLDA10 will focus on monoclonal antibodies recognising human dendritic cell-associated molecules, with an emphasis on monoclonal antibodies as therapeutics. Keynote speakers will include Professors Tom Tedder, Pablo Engel, Jacques Banchereau and Jim Marks.

For more information and to register for ASI2014, HLDA10 or both, visit http://asi2014.org.