FOCIS 2013 – June 27-30, Boston, MA
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Sarah Martis, CAE, was named the new Executive Director of the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS), effective immediately. Martis follows in the footsteps of her mentor and departing FOCIS Executive Director, Gail Bast, who will remain as the FOCIS Consulting Director. Martis has served as the Associate Executive Director of FOCIS since 2011 and has been with FOCIS since 2004. She will attend her tenth FOCIS annual meeting in June.
Martis has a broad range of experience in all areas of association management, including cross-functional marketing, membership services and new technology platforms. She is dedicated to the establishment and continuous improvement of organizational procedures. Martis received the Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation in 2011. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from St. Norbert’s College in De Pere, Wisconsin.
Regarding the transition, FOCIS President-Elect Robert Nussenblatt, MD, said the promotion was well-deserved. “Sarah will continue to provide excellent service in her new role. She has the ideal combination of skill sets we look for in an association leader. We look forward to working with her and her staff to achieve our common goals of growth for FOCIS as we move forward.”
“I am honored to serve as the Executive Director for FOCIS,” Martis said. “The organization has a tradition of providing excellent science to its members through its educational programs, its publications and the annual conference. I am energized by the challenges of leveraging such a unique medical niche.”
Gail Bast has served as the FOCIS Executive Director since 2004. “Sarah will make this transition seamless. Her experience, energy and creativity are tremendous assets to the organization. We are fortunate to have such a strong leader who is forward-thinking, dedicated to excellence and high standards, knowledgeable about educating the next generation of translational immunologists, and capable of reaching out to both clinicians and scientists who share a common vision about the importance of translational immunology. Technological aptitude helps FOCIS leverage the best tools to facilitate an interdisciplinary approach to translational immunology and bring together immunologists from different disciplines. Her CAE knowledge will help guide FOCIS in the ongoing review of governance structures as it continues to evolve as an individual membership organization and as a federation comprised of member societies.”
FOCIS is excited to introduce a new initiative, Communities of Practice (COP), which was created with the goal of empowering and involving FOCIS societies and members in the Annual Meeting Scientific Program Development, and to increase interdisciplinary communication between societies. In addition to directly influencing the FOCIS annual meeting program, benefits of COP membership include career enhancement, opportunities for leadership and interaction with colleagues from different areas. More information will be available soon. Watch the FOCIS website, Facebook page and LinkedIn group for the latest developments.
Editorial Board: Abul K. Abbas, MD, University of California, San Francisco | Carla J. Greenbaum, MD, Benaroya Research Institute Andrew H. Lichtman, MD, PhD, Brigham & Women's Hospital
| Highlights from Recent Literature |
CD8 T Cell Avidity is Dependent on T Regulatory CellsA review of Pace L., et al. Regulatory T Cells Increase the Avidity of Primary CD8+ T Cell Responses and Promote Memory. Science 338; 532-36, 2012. PMID: 23112334 T regulatory cells (Tregs) are necessary to prevent aberrant immune activation that can lead to autoimmunity. Interestingly however, Tregs do not appear to prevent immune activation in response to pathogens. In fact, in two separate reports, Tregs have been shown to contribute to the clearance of L. major and herpes simplex virus (Belkaid et al., 2002; Lund et al., 2008). The precise mechanisms as to how Tregs contribute to the priming of the immune response remain unclear. Here, Pace et al. utilize FoxP3 DTR mice, in which FoxP3+ cells express the human diphtheria toxin receptor, to eliminate Tregs via an injection of diphtheria toxin. They administered the toxin before administering a foreign antigen which activates CD8 T cells, and employed MHC-multimers to measure the frequency of antigen reactive T cells during the response. Their key findings were: |
| Highlights from Clinical Immunology, Official Journal of FOCIS |
Epigenetics and Chromatin Remodeling in Henoch-Schönlein PurpuraA review of Luo S., et al. Aberrant Histone Modifications in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells from Patients with Henoch-Schönlein Purpura. Clinical Immunology (2013) 146:165-175. PMID: 23353785 Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP) is a systemic vasculitis that classically presents as palpable purpura with arthritis, abdominal pain, or kidney dysfunction in the weeks following an upper respiratory tract infection. The majority of cases of HSP occur in children, although it can affect adults as well, and the pathophysiology is thought to involve IgA-immune complex deposition, which leads to complement activation, neutrophil influx, and microvascular destruction. Despite much interest in HSP, its precise etiology remains unclear and a variety of host and environmental factors have been identified as potential contributors. One area that has not been previously explored in HSP is the role of epigenetics and histone remodeling, which can affect the transcriptional accessibility of specific genetic loci. This avenue of research is of particular interest in light of recent evidence supporting the notion that epigenetic regulation may influence T cell function and susceptibility to autoimmune diseases such as lupus, Sjögren’s syndrome, and rheumatoid arthritis. To test the hypothesis that epigenetic changes might contribute to HSP, Luo et al. analyzed histone modifications and gene expression in PBMCs collected from 24 adult patients with HSP and 22 healthy controls of similar age. The authors found that: |
| Human Immunophenotyping Update |
Miniaturizing Immune Monitoring AssaysHolden T. Maecker, PhD, Stanford University The most common immune monitoring assays are serological. This stems from the fact that antibody-based assays have a much longer history in immunology than do cellular assays, and because the technical demands for antibody assays tend to be lower. Because of their long history and widespread use, technological advances in antibody-based assays are many. Two of the main areas for advancement have been multiplexing (the ability to measure many analytes at once) and miniaturization (to allow use of smaller samples). Often, the two go hand in hand. Consider the following advances in multiplexing and/or miniaturization of antibody-based assays: |
| Concepts in Basic Immunology: Principles and Therapeutic Applications |
A New Wave of Rational Therapeutics for Immunological Disorders: Small Molecule Signaling InhibitorsShiv Pillai, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital History |
| Selected Recent Clinical Trial Results |
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Edited by Carla J. Greenbaum, MD, Benaroya Research Institute Dimethyl Fumarate in Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis: The DEFINE and CONFIRM StudiesClinical Trials: Fox J. et al., Placebo-Controlled Phase 3 Study of Oral BG-12 or Glatiramer in Multiple Sclerosis. New England Journal of Medicine 2012; 367:1087-97.) PMID: 22992072 Gold R et al., Placebo-Controlled Phase 3 Study of Oral BG-12 for Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis. New England Journal of Medicine 2012; 367:10107. PMID: 22992073 |
