Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies

Satellite Programs

Assessing Regulatory vs. Aggressive Autoreactivity in Humans with Type 1 Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis or Multiple Sclerosis
Immunology of Diabetes Society & International Society for Neuroimmunology
Thursday, June 1
9:00am-5:00pm
Chairs: Matthias von Herrath, MD and Amit Bar-Or, MD, FRCPC

9:00am - 12:00pm Session 1: T-Regs in Humans - How to Define and Find Them Chairs: Claire Baecher Allen, PhD and Kevan Herold, MD
9:00 - 9:05 am	Chair's Introduction
9:05 - 9:25 am	T-Regs: When, Where and How Do They Work in Autoimmune Diabetes Jeff Bluestone, PhD University of California-San Francisco
9:25 - 9:45 am	Regulatory T-Cells in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Before and After Anti TNF Alpha Therapy Michael Ehrenstein University College of London
9:45 - 10:05 am	Evidence for human Tregs in MS and T1D David Hafler, MD Harvard Medical School
10:05 - 10:25 am	Standardizing T-Cell Assays Vicky Seyfert, PhD Immune Tolerance Network
10:25 - 10:40 am	Break
10:40 - 11:00 am	Fishing for T-Regs with Tetramers? Jane Buckner, MD University of Washington
11:00 - 11:20 am	Novel Treg Markers Barbara Fazekas de St. Groth, MD, PhD Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology
11:20 - 11:40 am	Tregs and the Pathogenesis of Arthritis Ken Kalunian, MD University of California- San Diego
11:40 am - 12:00 pm	FoxP3 - Activation Marker or TReg Marker? Steve Ziegler, PhD Benaroya Research Institute
12:00 - 1:00 pm Lunch on your own
1:00pm - 4:45 pm Session 2: What do T-Regs See and How do They Work - Autoantigens and Protective Autoimmunity Chairs: Mark Peakman, MD, PhD and David Hafler, MD
Natural Antigenic Targets/Disease Prediction:
1:00 - 1:20 pm	Is Insulin the Target of Autoreactivity in Man? George Eisenbarth, MD, PhD University of Colorado - Barbara Davis Center
1:20 - 1:40 pm	Where is the Regulatory Action - in the Target Organ or in the Lymph Node? Matthias von Herrath, MD La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology
1:40 - 2:00 pm	Humanized Mice as a Tool to Discover Autoreactive Specificities Li Wen, MD, PhD Yale University School of Medicine
2:00 - 2:20 pm	Predicting Disease with T-Cell Assays Andrew Fontenot, MD University of Colorado School of Medicine
2:20 - 2:40 pm	Antigen Specific T-Regs in MS? Steve Miller, PhD Northwestern University Medical School
2:40 - 3:00 pm	Expression of Human Autoantigens in the Thymus, Peripheral Lymphoid Tissues and the Target Organ Albert Pugliese, MD University Miami School Medicine
3:00 - 3:15 pm	Break
3:15 - 3:30 pm	Autoreactivity and immunoregulation in type 1 diabetes Peter Gottlieb, MD University of Colorado
3:30 - 3:45 pm	Medicine Immunotherapy of arthritis Kazuhiko Yamamoto, MD The University of Tokyo
T-Reg Detection Following Immunization:
3:45 - 4:05 pm	On Defining Autoantigens Darcy Wilson, PhD Multiple Sclerosis National Research Institute
4:05 - 4:25 pm	T-Reg and T-Cell Reactivity in Man Following Insulin Immunization Len Harrison Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
4:25 - 4:45 pm	Defining Autoreactivity Through Naturally Processed Peptide Epitopes and Detection Following Immunization Mark Peakman, MD King's College London - Guy's Hospital

Idea, Goals and Synopsis

The idea for this symposium was jointly conceived by the International Neuroimmunology and Immunology of Diabetes Society. This event is organized in a similar fashion as last year's joint-symposium, which was focused on agents already introduced into early phase studies in patients, especially those, where human immune-monitoring and mechanistic data are available. The morning session is focused on the detection of human T-Regs and their optimal definition. In the afternoon, crucial aspects of auto-antigenic specificity, naturally and following therapeutic immunizations, will be discussed. We believe that this topic is highly relevant for refining future immune based interventions in multiple sclerosis (MS) and type 1 diabetes (T1D) and several other autoimmune disorders. Identifying parallels as well as differences between MS and T1D will allow us to better to fully realize the potential of novel treatments. The symposium, which already features international experts, will also serve as a forum for the most outstanding abstracts to be chosen from work submitted to FOCIS 2006.

In summary, bridging the knowledge and experience across two disciplines is timely and a good strategy to further our understanding into autoimmune disease mechanisms and prospective therapeutics. Sharing data during the early phase trials in both diseases will allow us to identify parallels and differences and help to optimally design future interventions. Furthermore, lessons learned from one disease might be helpful for the other and vice versa. Clinicians, basic scientists, industry and, ultimately, patients, will profit from this satellite meeting.