In recognition of the role of cytokines in COVID-19 and the extraordinary research that was being done by the cytokine & interferon community, the Local Organizing Committee of the International Cytokine & Interferon Society (ICIS) re-shaped the program to include the latest findings on SARS-CoV-2/host interactions and COVID-19. Although we were disappointed not to be meeting live in Seattle in 2020, the pandemic underscored 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 were presented virtually to update participants on these activities to reveal promising research that led is associated with cytokine-based therapeutics and immune-modifying biologics to treat COVID-19, cancer, autoimmunity, infectious disease and vaccine applications.
After much consideration of the many virtual meeting platform providers, Cytokines 2020 partnered with LabRoots as our virtual meeting platform. LabRoots has produced hundreds of virtual events and thousands of webcasts beginning a good 12 years before the COVID019 pandemic, and is a leading scientific social networking web-based platform, offering top scientific trending news and premier educational virtual events and webinars. As networking and dissemination of ideas are at the heart of the ICIS mission, the Local Organizing Committee of Cytokines 2020 felt confident that the LabRoots platform and the experienced team behind it, combined with the impactful and diverse content of the scientific program, helped facilitate connections of meeting participants in a dynamic virtual environment.
Keynote Presentations:
- Dr. Judi Allen, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
- Dr. Michael Diamond, Washington University, St. Louis, USA
- Dr. Lalita Ramakrishnan, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Dr. Ellen Rothenberg- Caltech, Pasadena, USA
Cytokines 2020 was a fantastic virtual meeting but we look forward to meeting in Seattle in person in 2025!
Co-Chairs
Michael Gale, Jr., PhD Ram Savan, PhD
Department of Immunology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA USA
Cytokines 2020 Virtual Meeting
Local Organizing Committee
Sarah L. Gaffen, PhD, Pittsburg, USA
Yueh-Ming Loo, PhD, Gaithersberg, USA
Naeha Subramanian, PhD, Seattle, USA
Steven F. Ziegler, PhD, Seattle, USA
Reneé C. Ireton, PhD, Seattle, USA
International Advisory Committee:
Simon Jones, PhD, Cardiff, UK
Eleanor Fish, PhD, FAAS, Toronto, Canada
Kate Fitzgerald, PhD, Worcester, USA
Georg Schett, MD, Erlangen, Germany
Akinori Takaoka, MD, PhD, Sapporo, Japan
You-Me Kim, PhD, Pohang, South Korea
The International Cytokine & Interferon Society (ICIS), is a non-profit organization of over 950 scientists devoted to research in the fields of cytokine, interferon and chemokine cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry and the clinical use of these biological response modifiers. Bringing together scientists across many different research disciplines, ICIS is the premier organization promoting the field of cytokine biology, impacting all aspects of medicine and leading to new treatments in autoimmune diseases, cancer, infectious diseases and inflammation.
It is a major goal of the ICIS to facilitate interactions between young investigators and trainees with established researchers in the interferon and cytokine field. Outstanding junior investigators, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate/medical students are encouraged to participate in the Annual Scientific meeting through the presentation of prestigious travel awards dedicated to young researchers.