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First Round of Abstract Submission Ends: May 15, 2025
Extended Early Bird Ends: Apr 28, 2025

Keynote Speakers

Prof. Cong-Yi Wang
Huazhong University of Science & Technology, China
Title: Will be update soon
Director：The Center for Biomedical Research, Tongji Biobank, Tongji Hospital
Director：National Health Commission Key Laboratory for Respiratory Diseases
Professor, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, HUST
Study Section：NIH; ADA; JDFI; Austria Science Foundation; UK Welcome Trust; Hongkong Research Grants Council; National Medical Research Council (NARC), MOH, Singapore; Natural Science Foundation of China (Regular Grant, Young Scientist Development Grant and Outsanding Young Scientist Grant); Changjiang Scholarship, Ministry of Education of China; Program Project Grants, Ministry of Science and Technology of China.
Faculty member: Faculty Opinion
President： The Society of Scientific Research and Management of Hospitals in Wuhan
Vice President：Chinse Society of Transplantation Immunology
Vice Chair：Type 1 Diabetes Alliance in China
Editor：International Journal of Molecular Epidemiology and Genetics
Associate Editor：Frontiers in Immunology
Editorial Board Members: Diabetes & Metabolism Journal, American Journal of Translational Research, and World Journal of Diabetes
Peer Reviewer：Diabetes, Advanced Materials, Molecular Therapy, Nucleic Acids Research, American Journal of Human Genetics, Diabetologia, Science Advances, JEM, JCI, and Nature Communications of more than 30 journals.
Funding: The research team was supported by the 5 key project grants, 1 oversea collaborative grant and 1 international communication grant from NSFC; 1 program project director and 3 program project PIs from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China; and 1 grant from the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes. Previous Positions in USA: Tenured Associate Professor at the Medical College of Georgia; Laboratory Director of the Georgia Esoteric & Molecular Laboratory, Medical College of Georgia
Patents and publications: Seventeen patents with more than 210 peer reviewed publications including NEJM, Nat Genet, Cell Metabolism Circulation, Ann Intern Med, Sci Adv, ERJ, Nat Commun, Mol Ther, JACI, AJHG，Diabetes, Diabetologia, JCI and so on.
Prof. Dan Wu
Yale University School of Medicine, USA
Title: New insights into neutrophil biology
Dr. Dan Wu is Professor of Pharmacology at Yale University School of Medicine. His laboratory focuses on investigation of Wnt and G protein-mediated signaling mechanisms and functions in a broad range of biological and pathophysiological processes with emphasis on leukocyte biology.
Prof. Baofa Yu
Title: Will Update
Baofa Yu, M.D. Chief Physician in China, Adjunct Professor at University of Texas (El Paso) (2016) and Adjunct Professor at Western University of Health Sciences (2016). He graduated from Peking Union Medical College (Peking Union Medical College) in 1988. He was a post-doctoral fellow at UCSD from 1990 to 1991, Salk from 1992 to 1993, Assistant Adjunct Professor, UCSD from 1994 to 1998. In the United States, he was mainly engaged in the research of cancer drug carrier drug delivery and tumor molecular biology. He invented the new concept of using tumor tissue as a sustained release system of anticancer drugs and the treatment method of sustained release reservoir, which has clinical application value, it is also called ultro-Minimum incision personalized intratumoral chemoimmunotherapy (UMIPIC). In 1998, he returned to China and founded Shandong Baofa Research Institute and Taimei Baofa Cancer Hospital in Dongping rural area with technological investment, and served as the chairman of Shandong Baofa Cancer Treatment Co., LTD., and later established Jinan Baofa Cancer Hospital (2004). Dongping Baofa General Hospital (2011), Beijing Baofa Cancer Hospital (2013) and Immuno Oncology Systems, Inc. This UMIPIC is safe, easy to operate, and reproducible with good benefit for all solid tumor. Today this therapy is accepted to "Clinical Operation Guidelines for Interventional Treatment of Advanced Pancreatic Cancer" (Trial) (7th edition), jointly formulated by the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association, the National Clinical Medical Research Center for Radiology and Therapy, and the National Interventional Medicine Innovation Alliance, Journal of Clinical Radiology, volume 43, number 19, 2024, 1636-1648. He has published more than 60 papers about this therapy in Nature:Scientific Report, Journal of Cancer, Cancer letter, Cytokin and Growth Factor Reviews, Nature Cancer (under review), J Basic Clin Pharma, J Immunological Sci, Japanese Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Novel Approaches in Cancer Study, Academic Journal of Engineering Studies, Nov Res Sci, Journal of Hepatocellular carcinoma, lung Cancer: Target and Therapy, Journal of Liver Research, disorders & therapy, Chinese Journal of Chest,Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci.USA, Pancreas and other journals and many post papers participated in AACR and ASCO meeting.
Prof. Ronen Alon
Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Title: The LFA-1-ICAM-1 axis in lymphocyte migration and differentiation in infection and cancer: findings and puzzles
Ronen Alon is a professor of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science and a chair of the Department of Immunology and Regenerative Biology. His research explores the molecular mechanisms of leukocyte trafficking through blood vessels to target tissues in infection, inflammation and cancer. His group also studies how specific adhesion molecules mediate immune cell communications in specialized sites such as lymph nodes and solid tumors. He has also had long time interest in the roles of specific chemotactic cytokines, chemokines in leukocyte interactions with blood vessels and immune cells. Alon received his Ph.D. in biophysics and biochemistry from the Weizmann Institute in 1993, conducted a post doctoral research at Harvard University with Dr. Timothy Springer and joined the Weizmann Institute in 1996 where he became a full professor in 2009. Alon is a member of EMBO, was the president of the Israeli Immunological Society and has served in numerous academic, administrative and educational positions. He has published 200 research papers, reviews, and book chapters. Alon chaired the 2024 Gordon Conference on Chemotactic Cytokines in Maine U.S.A..
Dr. Jorge Frias-Lopez
Title: Will be update soon
After obtaining my PhD in Microbiology I went to work as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where I worked in projects related to adquision of antibiotic resistance in members of the gut microbiome and on infectious polymicrobial disiease in corals. From there I moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where I developed a set of tools that facilitate the study of gene expression in whole microbial communities (metatranscriptome) and not just in one specific organism, thus opening the opportunity to better understand the role of microbes in health and disease as well as the way they communicate to each other and with their host. Before joining the University of Florida I worked at the Forsyth Institute (Cambridge, MA), where I was an Associate Member of the Staff at the Department of Microbiology and I served as its Vice-chair. Additionally I was a lecturer on Oral Medicine, Infection, and Immunity at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. Since August 2016 I am an Associate Professor at the Department of Oral Biology at the School of Dentistry.
Prof. Moutih Rafei
University of Montreal, Canada
Title: Mesenchymal stromal cell-based immunotherapy: the past, the present, and the future!
Expert in cellular and molecular immunology with major focus on cell-based therapies and therapeutics. Innovative scientist who can continuously propose and implement new research projects and foster external collaborations based on emerging human disease understanding. Ability to work comfortably under pressure while maintaining high energy level in a field that emphasizes speed, organizational skills, decisiveness, and effective interpersonal communications. Expertise in training laboratory personnel with consistent track record of surpassing standards and goals. Research Interests: - Cytokines engineering and biology - Autoimmune diseases and oncology - Cell therapy and immuno-therapeutics - Discovery of novel compounds for stimulating thymopoiesis - Ex vivo expansion of hematopoietic stem cells
Dr. Isabelle Munoz
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Australia
Title: Improving CAR-T Cell Persistence and Efficacy Using CRISPR-Cas9 Technology
Dr Munoz, is a Fundamental Cancer Researcher and Immunologist in Paul Beavis’ laboratory at Peter MacCallum since 2021. She studied Biology at the Sorbonne University and subsequently trained in immunology by following the Pasteur’s Institute courses (Paris). She completed her PhD in the team of Dr De Saint-Basile and Pr Fisher (Imagine Institute - Paris) where she explored the role of the Kinesin-1 in the regulated secretion of immune cells. She finally discovered that Kinesin-1 is directly involved in the process of mast cell degranulation, paving the way toward new therapeutic solutions for allergy treatment (PCT/IB2016/000617). Then, she decided to join Emmanuel Donnadieu’s laboratory at the Cochin Institute (Paris) to focus her work on epigenetic and cancer research. She studied the role of an epigenetic factor, named CXXC5, using murine models and discovered that the hematopoietic and immune system of these animals was characterised by a premature ageing. Then she identified the cause of this accelerated ageing, which was due to an overproduction of G-CSF by stromal cells present in the bone marrow microenvironment. This discovery, that could help the elderly to better fight age-related diseases (viral infection or cancer), led to a patent (EP23305142.5) and various publications. Finally, she joined Paul Beavis’ lab, focussing her research on the development of the next generation of CAR-T cell using CRISPR/Cas9 HDR technology. Her current interest focuses on the identification of genes directly involved in the process of CAR-T cells exhaustion, known as a major barrier to CAR-T cell therapy success.
Dr. Olga Rojas
Canada
Title: B cell immune response during neuroinflammation
Dr. Rojas is an immunologist focusing on the role of immune cells in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. During her postdoctoral fellow at University of Toronto, Dr. Rojas uncovered the role of intestinal Plasma cells during neuroinflammation. The findings revealed that a subset of microbiome-specific IgA Plasma cells is key to fight brain inflammation in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The “gut-brain axis” is emerging as an important target in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. However, immunological mechanisms underlying this axis remain poorly understood in Alzheimer’s. Currently, Dr. Rojas lab works at understanding the role of intestinal immune cells as a key mediator of the gut-brain axis in health and disease.
Dr. Ramona Moles
The University of Mississippi Medical Center, USA
Title: Innate immunity in HTLV-1 infection
Dr. Ramona Moles is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Immunology and Microbial Research (CIMR) at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Dr. Moles's research laboratory aims to understand innate immunity's role in persistent infection and viral oncogenesis. Dr. Moles received her Ph.D. at the University of Kansas, where she studied the oncogenic retrovirus HTLV-1. Her research focused on microRNAs and DNA repair dysregulation involved in HTLV-1 pathogenesis. Dr. Moles showed that targeting the DNA repair machinery represents a promising therapeutic strategy for HTLV-1 patients. After completing her Ph.D. in Pathology, Dr. Moles continued her research at the National Cancer Institute (NCI, NIH), investigating the immunological responses against HTLV-1 in vitro and in vivo. The Center for Cancer Research awarded Dr. Moles's work twice with the Federal Technology Transfer Award for characterizing early immunological responses against HTLV-1 infection. This knowledge is crucial to developing an HTLV-1 vaccine.
Prof. Jacques Demongeot
University Grenoble Alpes, France
Title: Modelling the V(D)J recombination in human and mouse
Jacques Demongeot received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University Joseph Fourier (UJF) of Grenoble in 1976 and M.D. from UJF in 1978. He was appointed as Professor in UJF (Faculty of Medicine) in 1984 (Emeritus since 2015) and as Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France in 1994 (Honorary since 2005). He did a post-doc at the Mathematical Biology Laboratory of Oxford (J.D. Murray) and at IHES (R. Thom) in 1983-1984. He created the laboratory CNRS TIMC-IMAG in 1987 and was its director until 2011. He founded the Medical Informatics Service and Public Health Pole at University Hospital of Grenoble in 1985 and directed it until 2012. He has published over 300 scientific papers in medical informatics, biostatistics, bioinformatics and theoretical biology.
Prof. Jixin Zhong
Tongji Hospital, China
Title: Will update soon
Jixin Zhong, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Medicine, Vice Chief of Division of Rheumatology and Immunology, Deputy Director of Institute of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong Univ. of Science & Technology. Dr. Zhong’s research focuses on the inflammatory regulation in autoimmune and cardiometabolic diseases. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in top journals such as Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, Lancet Rheumatology, Circulation Research, Pharmacological Reviews, Diabetes Care. His research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), American Heart Association (AHA), American Association of Immunologists (AAI), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).
Dr. Samuele Notarbartolo
Title: Defining the molecular pathways governing human memory T cell differentiation to enhance vaccines efficacy
Samuele Notarbartolo is a Principal Investigator with extensive experience in Cellular and Molecular Immunology at the Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico in Milan, Italy. Dr. Notarbartolo’s professional training has covered multi-disciplinary approaches related to transcriptional, epigenetic, and functional investigation in the context of innate and adaptive immunity. Over a decade of postdoctoral experience, he has significantly contributed to elucidating how human T-cell identity and function are regulated in physiology and pathology (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5910-4910). Dr. Notarbartolo obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine at the European School of Molecular Medicine (SEMM) c/o the laboratory of Prof. Gioacchino Natoli at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) in Milan, where he contributed to the discovery of the H3K27 demethylase activity of the Kdm6b/Jmjd3 protein in macrophages responding to inflammatory stimuli. He then joined as a postdoctoral fellow the laboratory of Prof. Federica Sallusto at the Institute of Research in Biomedicine (IRB) in Bellinzona (Switzerland), where he focused on dissecting the molecular mechanisms underlying human T lymphocyte identity and plasticity. Here, he defined the role of the transcription factor c-MAF in regulating the function of two Th17 cell subsets differently involved in the immune response to extracellular pathogens (i.e. fungi and bacteria) and the development of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, and rheumatoid arthritis. As a Junior Principal Investigator at the National Institute of Molecular Genetics (INGM), Dr. Notarbartolo characterized the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection in COVID-19 patients with increasing disease severity and explored the molecular pathways underlying the identity and function of intra-tumoral T cells. Currently, Dr. Notarbartolo’s laboratory integrates transcriptional, epigenetic, and functional analyses at the single-cell resolution to define the regulatory circuits governing human memory T-cell differentiation.
Prof. Akio Miyamoto
Obihiro University of Agriculture & Veterinary Medicine, Japan
Title: Sensing sperm by maternal innate immunity toward pregnancy: Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) is a main system in cattle
Akio Miyamoto is a professor and a head director of Global Agromedicine Research Center (GAMRC) of Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Japan. He finished his Ph.D. in Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, and moved to Institute of Physiology, Technical University of Munich, Germany, and worked on cow Reproductive Endocrinology and Physiology over 4 yrs. He led the research on ovarian physiology in cattle for long period, and expand his focus to reproductive health and disease. He is currently interested in the immune crosstalk of sperm and embryos with uterine and oviduct immune system that appears to be a physiological interaction toward sperm capacitation and embryo development in vivo. His team recently found that the innate immune receptor, TLR2, is involved in such a communication as the main sensor, and this innate immune system is a physiological process necessary for proceeding on the path to fertilization and embryo receptivity in the cow.
Dr. Mélanie Bruchard
University of Burgundy, France
Title: The Unexpected Relationship Between NK Cells and CD8 T Cells in Cancer: Beyond the Dogmas
Dr. Mélanie Bruchard is an immuno-oncologist specializing in the field of innate lymphoid cells (ILCs). Her research focuses on understanding the roles that various ILC family members play in the anti-tumor response following treatment, aiming to deepen our understanding of the immune cascades involved. After obtaining her Ph.D. in France, Dr. Bruchard worked with Prof. Hergen Spits at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where she gained extensive knowledge of ILCs and their functions. During her time there, she also contributed to the identification of a new subset of dendritic cells. Upon returning to France, Dr. Bruchard began building her own research team dedicated to the study of ILCs in cancer. She was the first to demonstrate the importance of ILC3s in the efficacy of cisplatin-based treatment for lung cancer. Her work showed that ILC3s are responsible for recruiting CD8 and CD4 T cells to the tumor following cisplatin treatment (Nat Immunol, 2022). Currently, Dr. Bruchard is focusing on the unexpected relationship between NK cells and CD8 T cells.
Dr. Stephen Opoku
University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA
Title: Targeting Neuroimmune Crosstalk to Hijack Breast Cancer Growth and Progression: Exploring Immunodiagnostic and Therapeutic Targets
Stephen is an Immunologist specializing in Cancer Neuroscience, with research focus on understanding the interplay between the immune and nervous systems in driving breast cancer growth and progression. He earned his professional degree in Medical Laboratory Technology in Ghana before moving to the United States to pursue a PhD in Immunology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Stephen's research has significantly contributed to the field of immunodiagnostics, identifying immunometabolic biomarkers that facilitate early disease detection, accurate diagnosis, and patient stratification for more effective therapies. His work has been widely recognized, with over 40 publications in high-impact journals spanning multiple fields, including diabetes, COVID-19, HIV, pregnancy-related complications, and cancer.
Dr. Frédérique Végran
Centre de Recherche INSERM UMR 1231 – DIJON, France
Title: Non-canonical functions of NLRP3 in CD4 T cells
Dr. Frédérique Végran is a researcher in immuno-oncology. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Burgundy (Dijon, France) in 2007. She completed her first postdoctoral fellowship in Belgium in the FATH laboratory led by Prof. Feron, where she studied the tumor microenvironment, before joining Prof. Ghiringhelli’s team in Dijon as a postdoctoral researcher. As tenured research scientist at INSERM since 2016, she focuses on the mechanisms of T cell differentiation, with particular interest in the identification of non-canonical functions of NLRP3 in CD4 T cells.