Announcements

March 2012

AAVI/AAI-VIC Joint Symposium at Immunology 2012

The American Association for Immunology Veterinary Immunology Committee (AAI-VIC)/AAVI symposium is almost here.  This symposium will be part of the AAI regular meeting to be held May 4th-8th, 2012 in Boston, Massachusetts.  This year the AAI-VIC/AAVI symposium will focus on “Immunology of Zoonotic Diseases”.  Confirmed speakers as of this writing include Dr. Sabra Klein of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, Robert Heinzen from the Laboratory of intracellular parasites at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory, and Karen Elkins from the Laboratory of Mycobacterial Diseases and Cellular Immunology, CBER, US Food and Drug Administration. 

Dr. Klein’s research focuses on immune responses to influenza and hantaviruses, as well as on sex-related differences in the response to vaccination.  Dr. Klein has recently published on the role 17β-estradiol plays in suppressing influenza-mediated inflammation and on the impact sex, gender, and pregnancy played in 2009 H1N1 disease. 

Dr. Heinzen works on Coxiella burnetii and Q-fever and has recently published reviews on the genetic manipulation of obligate intracellular bacteria and rescue of Coxiella burnetii from host cells. 

Dr. Elkins’ research topics include vaccines against tularemia and intracellular bacteria.  Recent publications from Dr. Elkins laboratory have explored the role of CD4-CD8 double-negative T cells during infection with F. tularensis and the role of NK cells in controlling growth of F. tularensis. 

This symposium promises to be of strong general interest and should be a significant addition to the already outstanding AAI regular meeting.