The goal of this spring symposium, held at the UAB Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center was to provide a forum where the newest developments in basic, translational and clinical immunology could be shared with colleagues, graduate students and post-doctoral trainees. Follow the links at left for further information about this meeting.
One of the major objectives was to stimulate interactions between neighboring institutions in the Southeastern United States. To this end, leading faculty at Emory, HudsonAlpha, Vanderbilt, University of Tennessee at Memphis, Georgia Regents University, University of Florida and UAB were invited to present their work. Distinguished keynote speakers included Nobel Prize Laureate Dr. Rolf Zinkernagel (University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland), member of the National Academy of Sciences Dr. Emil Unanue (Washington University School of Medicine) and Dr. John Cambier (Denver School of Medicine). For interviews with the keynote speakers, click here.
Three plenary sessions were scheduled as well as a Saturday evening poster session, which was held in conjunction with a reception in the same room as the posters. The aim was to facilitate interactions among the attendees and encourage trainees to present their work. 54 abstracts were submitted for presentation. Abstracts were reviewed in a two-step process by a panel of five UAB immunologists. Four trainees, who obtained the best scores, received a $500 Travel Award and an opportunity to make an oral presentation on Saturday morning. These trainees were: Han Dong (University of Virginia), Tahseen Nasti (UAB), Ying Yi Zheng (University of Florida at Gainesville), J. Stewart New (UAB). Congratulations!