We would like to wish you a warm welcome to the very first Cytokines 2020 virtual Meeting, which was a lively and fully interactive meeting with a flavor of Seattle! This was a unique opportunity for more than 1000 colleagues from around the world to engage in 123 presentations with live Q&A and 230 lightning talks and 10 virtual exhibits.

The ICIS Annual Meetings have a distinguished history of presenting cutting edge research from internationally recognized scientists. In recognition of the role of cytokines in COVID-19 and the extraordinary research being done by the cytokine & interferon community, the Local Organizing Committee of the International Cytokine & Interferon Society (ICIS) has re-shaped the program to include the latest findings on SARS-CoV-2/host interactions and COVID-19. The pandemic underscores the importance of this meeting and our research to understand the systems biology of cytokines and interferons in human health and disease. Nearly all of the major breakthroughs in COVID-19 treatments and vaccine development have connections to ICIS members in academia, government and industry.

Reflecting the diverse scientific interests in the field of cytokine biology, sessions impacting all aspects of cytokine and interferon basic science, clinical development, and medicine will update you on these activities to reveal promising research that will lead to or has already launched cytokine-based therapeutics and immune-modifying biologics to treat COVID-19, cancer, autoimmunity, infectious disease and vaccine applications.

Join us next year in Cardiff as we incorporate the virtual meeting platform together with live presentations!

Michael Gale, Jr., PhD, Chair                                                       Ram Savan, PhD, Co-Chair
Department of Immunology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA USA