The FOCIS 2022 Annual Meeting is THE meeting in translational immunology. FOCIS brings together leading clinicians and researchers delivering the latest breakthroughs across immunology.
FOCIS Scientific Program
2022 Keynote Speakers
Featured Speakers:
Don’t miss these prominent speakers! Search for the speakers on the FOCIS 2022 website and add them to your “favorites”.
Here are the FOCIS 2022 Featured Speakers:
| Niroshana Anandasabapathy, MD, PhD | Kristen Hege, MD | Dania Rabah, PhD |
| Mark Anderson, MD, PhD | Susan Kaech, PhD | William Rae, PhD |
| David Beck, MD, PhD | Brian Kim, MD | Soumya Raychaudhuri, MD, PhD |
| Jonathan Bromberg, MD, PhD | Sylvain Latour, PhD | Frédéric Rieux-Laucat, PhD |
| Yenan T. Bryceson, PhD | Megan Levings, PhD | Harlan Robins, PhD |
| Marcus Clark, MD | Michail Lionakis, MD, ScD | David M. Rothstein, MD |
| Marco Colonna, MD | Alice Long, PhD | Jonas Schulte-Schrepping, PhD Student |
| Shane Crotty, PhD | Emily Mace, PhD | Irini Sereti, MD |
| Jayne Danska, PhD | Alexander Marson, MD, PhD | Caroline Sokol, MD, PhD |
| Joseph Derisi, PhD | Christine Moussion, PhD | Justin Sonnenburg, PhD |
| Mikael Dolsten, MD, PhD | Dawn Newcomb, PhD | Maureen A. Su, MD |
| Terry Fang, PhD | Garry Nolan, MD, PhD | Tadatsugu Taniguchi, PhD |
| Michael Fischbach, PhD | Luigi Notarangelo, MD | Andreas Thiel, PhD |
| Jörg J. Goronzy, MD | Yanay Ofran, PhD | Jennifer E. Towne, PhD |
| Pamela Guerrerio, MD, PhD | Chantal Pichon, PhD | Stefan Tullius, MD, PhD, FACS |
| Jennifer L. Guerriero, PhD | Shiv Pillai, MD, PhD | Matt Yousefzadeh, PhD |
Plenary Sessions
- COVID-19 Immunology
- Cell Therapy
- Cell Trafficking in Disease
- Immune Regulation Disorders
- Immunology of Cancer
- New Themes in Autoimmunity
Thematic Sessions
- Humoral Immunity
- InflammAging
- Innate Immunity
- Metabolism/Microbiome
- Neuroimmunology
- Novel Insights Into Host Defense Pathogenesis
- Sex & Inflammation
- Type 2 Allergic Immunity
- Vaccination/Protection from COVID-19
Speaker Biographies
Tadatsugu Taniguchi, PhD
University of Tokyo
Taniguchi received his Ph.D. from the University of Zurich. He worked as Member of Cancer Institute (Tokyo), Professor of Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Osaka University and then Professor and Chair of the Department of Immunology at the University of Tokyo Medical School. His research projects have stemmed from his original discovery of two cytokine genes, interferon-beta and interleukin-2. These discoveries have laid the groundwork for therapeutic advances achieved by the administration of cytokines. He discovered a new family of transcription factors, the interferon regulatory factors (IRFs), which play integral roles in immunity and cancer. His group now focuses on dead cell-derived molecules that regulate innate immune responses in the host’s pathogenic responses. He has received numerous awards, including the Hammer Prize, Robert Koch Prize, Pezcoller-AACR International Award for Cancer Research, and was bestowed the Person of Cultural Merit award from the Government of Japan. He is Foreign Associate Member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, in 2003, International Member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2016 and Associate Member of EMBO in 2018.
Joseph DeRisi, PhD
University of California – San Francisco
Dr. Joseph DeRisi is Co-President of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub and a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF. He employs an interdisciplinary approach combining genomics, bioinformatics, biochemistry, and bioengineering to study parasitic and viral infectious diseases in a wide range of organisms, for the purpose of discovering and studying novel or unrecognized biothreats. Early work in his lab contributed to the identification of the SARS coronavirus in 2003. In a parallel effort, Dr. DeRisi studies P. falciparum, the causative agent of the most deadly form of human malaria, in order to develop faster, better therapeutic options. Dr. DeRisi was one of the early pioneers of DNA microarray technology and whole genome expression profiling and is nationally recognized for his efforts to make this technology accessible and freely available. He received a B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1992) from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry (1999) from Stanford University prior to joining the UCSF faculty as a Sandler Fellow in 1999. Dr. DeRisi was a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator from 2006- 2016, which he left to take on the role of Co-President of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, a non-profit medical research organization affiliated with UCSF, UC Berkeley, and Stanford University. Dr. DeRisi is a member of the National Academy of Science, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. DeRisi is continuing to pursue efforts toward data-driven diagnostics for infectious disease, and recently, autoimmune disorders.
Susan Kaech, PhD
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Susan Kaech is a Salk Institute Professor, Director of the NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis, and holder of the NOMIS Chair. Dr. Kaech aims to understand how memory T cells are produced during infection and vaccination, how they function and why in some particular cases, they fail to induce long-term immunity. Her lab has been a leader in using genetic and molecular tools to identify the genes and signaling molecules involved in generating two specific types of memory T cells, CD4 and CD8, from precursor cells during both acute and chronic viral infections. She and her team discovered more than half a dozen important regulatory genes, as well as several types of key molecules called cytokines, which influence memory T cell development.
Dr. Kaech is also interested in how T cells are metabolically regulated, and how their differentiation and function can be altered by nutrient availability during infection and in tumors. In particular, she seeks to learn how T cell behavior is suppressed by tumors, in order to create better therapies for cancer using the body’s own immune system—an innovative and rapidly moving field called cancer immunotherapy.
Dr. Kaech has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Damon Runyon–Walter Winchell Cancer Research Fellowship, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow.
Mark Anderson, MD, PhD
University of California – San Francisco
Dr. Anderson is a Professor in the UCSF Diabetes Center and is a leading expert in the understanding of autoimmune diseases and their underpinnings. His major scientific contributions involve unraveling the mechanisms by which a key transcription factor called Aire promotes immune tolerance. He continues to make significant contributions in this area of research and even has developed translational approaches to his findings that involve manipulating this key tolerance mechanism. As a leader in the translation of Immunology to human health, Dr. Anderson is a co-founder of ImmunoX, a novel program to harness the immune system for human health at UCSF and he is also President of the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS). He is a practicing Diabetologist and serves in an advisory capacity for the translation of immunology to autoimmunity including service as a Deputy Director in the Immune Tolerance Network, a NIH-sponsored multi-center clinical trial consortium whose focus is on manipulating tolerance in autoimmunity, allergy, and transplantation. He has also served as chair of the Hypersensitivity, Autoimmune and Immune-mediated Disease (HAI) study section for the National Institutes of Health and was recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Anderson also serves as Director of the UCSF Diabetes Center.