Welcome by the IUIS President, Stefan H.E. Kaufmann

At the 14th International Congress of Immunology in Kobe, Japan, from August 22 to 27, 2010, the new Executive Board and Council of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) were formed. The Congress was a great success with 6000 participants. The next ICI will take place in Rome, Italy, 2013, and thereafter in Melbourne, Australia, in 2016. Our Executive Board convenes annually, together with the IUIS Council. Our next meeting will take place in Washington D.C., in June 2011 and thereafter in Lima, Peru in May 2012 on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Latin American Society of Immunology (ALAI).

I have taken over presidency from Peter Doherty (Australia/USA), who is now our Past-President. Jorge Kalil (Brazil) has been elected as new Vice-President of our Board, Nick King (Australia) as new Treasurer and successor of Marianna Newkirk (Canada), and Seppo Meri (Finland) as the new Secretary General and successor of Mohamed Daha (The Netherlands).

Let me briefly introduce myself. I am a PhD and Professor of Immunology and Microbiology at the Charité, University Clinics in Berlin. In 1993 I became founding Director of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, where I chair the Department of Immunology. My major interest lies in antibacterial immunity with an emphasis on tuberculosis. There I am mostly interested in elucidating basic issues of how the cross-talk between the tubercle bacillus and the host immune system proceeds to understand how the host is protected over years but sometimes fails and allows disease reactivation. We try to exploit our knowledge about basic immunology for the rational design of a vaccine against tuberculosis, which has successfully passed a Phase I clinical trial. Moreover, we try to indentify biomarkers, which will allow us to distinguish active disease from latent infection, as well as to predict disease reactivation in latently infected healthy individuals. Further details can be seen on the institute website
(www.mpiib-berlin.mpg.de/en/research/immunology.html). I have been Past President of the German Society of Immunology, of which I am Honorary Member, and Past President of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS). During my time at EFIS I initiated the Day of Immunology to raise public awareness. This event was organized as a European enterprise but has since then gone global and is now celebrated each year on April 29, all over the world (see www.dayofimmunology.org).

Immunologists are well aware of the importance of immunity: Immunity forms the basis for vaccine development, be it new vaccines or adjuvants. Vaccines are known as the most cost-efficient interventions in medicine. Although vaccine production has comprised a rather small market in the past, it has become the fastest growing market segment in pharma in the last few years. Immunity is also the basis of surveillance to prevent cancer and when it is dysfunctional, immunity is the basis of autoimmunity, chronic inflammation and allergy. Thus, better understanding immune mechanisms will directly facilitate development of novel intervention measures of great importance for public health. This is best done by public–private partnerships, and hence, we at IUIS will increase interactions between academia and pharma industry. Moreover, we at IUIS are dedicated to bridging gaps of understanding and awareness about science, be they between north and south, academia and industry, basic and applied research, young students and post-docs and experienced professors, or between scientific progress in the lab and public awareness propagated by politicians and the press. Although immunity forms the basis for control of major health threats in developing countries, such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, there is a gap in education between regions in the north and south on this globe. Thus, education and training courses about immunity are needed to lessen the difference between industrialized and developing nations. To do all of this we need more financial support and hence we will engage proactively in attracting revenues from industry, philanthropic organizations and others. In addition to these bridging activities, we also have an important role in standardization and nomenclature in the area of immunology. To support all our activities, we have committees led by dedicated immunologists who have done, and continue to do, an excellent job. A very sincere thanks to all our committee members.

Immunology, however, is even more. It is also a basic science that has elucidated numerous mechanisms on molecular, cellular and tissue levels. These achievements have made immunology one of the most attractive disciplines in biomedicine, as e.g., evidenced by the high impact factors of journals specializing in immunology. Notably, immunology teaches us how a huge diversity can be recognized by specific receptors through genetic recombination, how self can be distinguished from non-self, or how insults are sensed and transformed into most adequate responses for their control. Much of basic immunology is about communication between different cells and the signaling pathways underlying this crosstalk. The immune system is both localized in specific organs such as bone marrow, thymus, lymph nodes and spleen, and diffused, since its cells migrate through blood, lymph and tissues. Thus, immune cells are equally programmed to act in highly structured organ systems and by themselves. Moreover, immune cells need to communicate with different tissue cells to perform their function. Hence, immunology is not only an important discipline in its own right, but has also attracted the interest of numerous other disciplines forming research areas at the interface with immunology, such as neuroimmunology.

To further increase communication among immunologists, we will continue our negotiations with a new journal, Frontiers in Immunology, which will hopefully lead to revenues but also facilitate exchange amongst immunologists. On the research side, the journal will publish top papers. Moreover, we will have some space for the latest news related to immunology, be it from research, politics or public health. We hope that these activities will help to attract new blood, which is urgently needed to make IUIS as lively as possible.

To achieve our ambitious goals we need input from you all. Even though IUIS is the umbrella organization of national societies and regional federations in immunology, ultimately we are here for their members, that is, you the individual immunologist. We want to increase communication and work in a transparent bottom-up approach, so that we can make educated decisions on behalf of all of our members.

Stefan H.E. Kaufmann