19th Annual Immunology Symposium
October 29, 2026 8:00AM - 4:30PM
Bonnie N. Dittel, PhD
Event Details
Date
8:00 am - 4:30 pm
Location
8733 W. Watertown Plank Rd.
Milwaukee, WI 53226
Contact
Daniel Kaplan, MD, PhD
Neuronal Control of Cutaneous Immunity
- Professor of Dermatology
- University of Pittsburgh
Yajing Gao, PhD
How immune cells handle their lipids: cholesterol trafficking in immunity, inflammation, and metabolism.
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
Nicholas Jarjour, PhD
Running in place: maintenance and renewal of tissue-resident immunity.
- Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, Medical College of Wisconsin
Brian Laidlaw, PhD
Establishment of lung tissue-resident memory B cells.
- Washington University in St. Louis
Caroline Sokol, MD, PhD
Neuroimmune Circuits in Allergic Immunity
- Member, Ragon Institute
- Core Member, Gene Lay Institute of Immunology and Inflammation
- Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School Assistant Physician, Division of Allergy andClinical Immunology, MGH
Featured Speakers and Topics
Patricia LoRusso, DO, PhD
Yale University
Presentation: Unlocking the Power of Antibody-Drug Conjugates: From Promise to Practice and Beyond
Starlynn Clarke, PhD
Rondo Therapeutics
Presentation: Harnessing T Cell Costimulation: From Basic Principles to Clinical Translation
Duo Xu, PhD
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Presentation: Structure-guided vaccine design via immunofocusing approaches
Varun Shanker
Stanford University
Presentation: Guiding evolution with protein language models
Famou Sun, PhD
Medical College of Wisconsin
Presentation: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Engineering of Antibody and CAR-T Therapies
Featured Speakers and Topics
Theresa Alenghat, VMD, PhD
University of Cincinnati
Presentation: Regulation of the host-microbiota relationship
Jennifer Bando, PhD
Stanford University
Presentation: Regulating Intestinal Innate Lymphocytes in Immune Cell Aggregates
Barbara Kee, PhD
University of Chicago
Presentation: Understanding the transcriptional programming of innate-like lymphocytes during their development and activation
Jeffery Miller, MD
University of Minnesota
Presentation: Innate NK cells: Individual donor to off-the-shelf engineered iPSC products and in-vivo tri-specific killer engagers (TriKEs)
Gregory F. Sonnenberg, PhD
Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University
Presentation: Innate immune determinants of intestinal physiology, tolerance and inflammation
Eillen Tecle, PhD
Medical College of Wisconsin
Presentation: Purine nucleotide salvage enzymes regulate epithelial cell resistance to infection in C. elegans
Marcel van den Brink, MD, PhD
City of Hope Los Angeles and National Medical Center
Presentation: The role of the intestinal microbiome in cancer immunotherapy
Wayne Yokoyama, MD
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Presentation: Challenging the current paradigms explaining pathogenesis of autoimmunity
Featured Speakers and Topics
Brian R. Curtis, PhD, MS, D(ABMLI), MT(ASCP)SBB
Versiti Diagnostic Labs
Presentation: Jack's Contributions to Versiti Diagnostic Labs
David A. Margolis, MD
Medical College of Wisconsin, Children's Wisconsin
Presentation: Thank You, Jack Gorski!
Matthew Anderson, MD, PhD
Versiti Diagnostic Labs
Presentation: HLA "Matching" in the Genomics Era: From Antigens to Alleles to the MHC
Andrea Ferrante, MD, MBA
Eli Lilly & Col, Lily Biotechnology Center
Presentation: The Unfolding of a Story About Folding: How Understanding HLA Class II-Restricted Epitope Selection Has Been Impacting Drug Discovery
Elena Naumova, PhD
Tufts University
Presentation: TCRs Complexity, Fractality, and University
Event Materials
Featured Speakers and Topics
Joseph T. Barbieri, PhD
Medical College of Wisconsin
Presentation: The Clostridial Neurotoxins: Two Edged Swords
Bryon D. Johnson, PhD
Medical College of Wisconsin
Presentation: Engineering T Cells for Resistance to Immune Checkpoints
Debra Newman, PhD
Blood Research Institute, Versiti
Presentation: T cell regulation of, and by, PECAM-1
Subramaniam Malarkannan, PhD
Blood Research Institute, Versiti
Presentation: Matt’ereology: Single-cell Transcriptome Reveals Altered TME in Pancreatic Cancer Patients
Weiqing Jing, PhD
Blood Research Institute, Versiti
Presentation: T Cells Deficient in Diacylglycerol Kinase ζ Are Resistant to PD-1 Inhibition and Help Create Persistent Host Immunity to Leukemia
Erin Wesley, PhD
University of Minnesota
Presentation: Evaluation of NK Cells in Ovarian Cancer Patients with Cytomegalovirus Reactivation and Systemic Inflammation
Event Materials
Featured Speakers and Topics
Center for Immunology, Medical College of Wisconsin Graduate Student Invited Speaker:
Marco Colonna, MD
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Presentation: Innate Lymphoid Cells in Mucosal Immunity
Sun Hur, PhD
Harvard Medical School
Presentation: RIG-I-like Receptors and Inflammation
Egil Lien, PhD
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Pathogen Manipulation of Innate Immunity – Implications on Signaling and Cell Death
Jyotika Sharma, PhD
University of South Dakota
Presentation: Neutrophil Extracellular Traps: Formation and Therapeutic Implications
Jenifer Coburn, PhD
Medical College of Wisconsin
Presentation: Spirochetes Stealthily Sneak Around Innate Immunity
Suzanne Cassel, MD
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Presentation: NLRC4 Regulation of the Anti-Influenza Immune Response
Event Materials
Featured Speakers and Topics
Frederick W. Alt, PhD
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Director, Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital; Charles A. Janeway Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
Presentation: New Insights into Mechanisms that Generate Primary and Peripheral B Cell Repertoires
James E. Crowe, MD
Ann Scott Carell Chair; Professor of Pediatrics, Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology; Director, Vanderbuilt Vaccine Center, Vanerbuilt University School of Medicine
Presentation: Molecular and Genetic Basis for Development of Broad and Potent Neutralizing Antibodies
Gary J. Nabel, MD, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer, Senior Vice President, Sanofi
Presentation: Development of Trispecific Antibodies for AIDS and Cancer
William Schief, PhD
Professor of Immunology and Microbial Science, The Scripps Research Institute
Presentation: Germline-Targeting Vaccine Design for HIV
Betty Diamond, MD
Head, The Center of Autoimmune Musculoskeletal and Hematopoietic Diseases, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
Presentation: Origins of Autoreactive B cells in Systemic Lupus
Demin Wang, PhD
John B. and Judith A. Gardetto Chair for Cancer Research, Senior Investigator, Blood Research Institute, Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin
Presentation: B Cell and Antibody Response in Heparin-induced Thrombocytopenia
Event Materials
Featured Speakers and Topics
Mark M. Davis, PhD: New Tools for T cells
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology; Director, Stanford Institute for Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection; Member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS); Stanford University School of Medicine
Presentation: A Window on Many Human Diseases
Ming Li, PhD
Professor, Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School; Professor, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences; Principal Investigator/Member, Immunology Program; Faculty Scholar, Howard Hughes Medical Institute/Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Presentation: Tolerance and Immunity in Health and Cancer
Edward M. Behrens, MD
Joseph Lee Hollander Associate Professor in Pediatric Rheumatology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania; Division Chief of Rheumatology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Presentation: Toward Developing a Precision Approach to the Cytokine Storm
Yi-Guang Chen, PhD: Genetic Control of Type 1 Diabetes
Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Endocrinology), Microbiology and Immunology; Medical College of Wisconsin
Presentation: Learning From the NOD Mouse
Gail Bishop, PhD
Professor of Microbiology and Internal Medicine; Director, Center for Immunology and Immune-Based Diseases; Associate Director for Basic Science Research, Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center; Holden Chair of Cancer Biology, The University of Iowa
Presentation: TRAF3 & B Cells: Understanding Biology to Inform Treatment of B Cell Malignancies
Arup Chakraborty, PhD
Director of Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), Robert T. Haslam Professor of Chemical Engineering; Professor of Physics, Chemistry, and Biological Engineering; Member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Presentation: How to Hit HIV Where it Hurts
Event Materials
Featured Speakers and Topics:
Ronald Germain, MD, PhD: Imaging Immunity
NIH Distinguished Investigator; Chief, Laboratory of Systems Biology and Lymphocyte Biology Section; Acting Chief, Laboratory of Immunology; Associate Director, Trans-NIH Center for Human Immunology; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health
Presentation: Creating a Spatiotemporal Understanding of Host Defense
Vera Tarakanova, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Medical College of Wisconsin
Presentation: Interferon Regulatory Factor 1: a B Cell Brake in Gammaherpevirus Infection
Patrick Wilson, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Section of Rheumatology, Knapp Center for Lupus and Immunology Research, University of Chicago
Presentation: Human Immune Memory to Influenza
David Brooks, PhD
Senior Scientist, Scotiabank Research Chair in Inflammation, Princess Margaret Cancer Center, University Health Network; Associate Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Toronto
Presentation: Exploiting the Underlying Mechanisms of Immune Exhaustion: Modulating the Environment to Fix the Parts
Jyothi Rengarajan, PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases and Emory Vaccine Center, Emory University School of Medicine
Presentation: Host Biomarkers of Tuberculosis Immunity
Gabriel Núñez, MD
Paul de Kruif Endowed Professor, Inflammation and Immunology; Co-Director, Immunology and Host Response Program; Professor, Department of Pathology, University of Michigan School of Medicine
Presentation: Linking Pathogen Virulence, Host Immunity and the Microbiota
Event Materials
Featured Speakers and Topics:
Alexander Chervonsky, MD, PhD
Professor, Department of Pathology, The University of Chicago
Presentation: Autoimmunity and Microbiota
Duane Wesemann, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Presentation: Insights into the Establishment and Function of the Primary Immunoglobulin Repertoire
Cathryn Nagler, PhD
Bunning Food Allergy Professor, Department of Pathology, Medicine and the College, The University of Chicago
Presentation: Innate Immune Regulation of Sensitization to Dietary Antigens by Commensal Bacteria
Veena Taneja, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Immunology, Mayo Clinic
Presentation: Gut Microbes- Friendly Residents or the Enemy Within
Christian Jobin, PhD
Professor, College of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, University of Florida
Presentation: How Inflammation Influences Colorectal Cancer: It is All About Bugs
Nita Salzman, MD, PhD
Professor, Children’s Research Institute, Medical College of Wisconsin
Presentation: Two Sides to Intestinal Homeostasis: Roles for Both Host and Microbial Antimicrobial Peptides
Event Materials
Featured Speakers and Topics:
Ellen Robey, PhD
Professor, Immunology and Pathogenesis, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California Berkeley
Presentation: Visualizing T Cell Selection in the Thymus
David Rawlings, MD
Director, Center for Immunity and Immunotherapies, Seattle Children’s Research Institute; Professor of Pediatrics, University of Washington
Presentation: Altered B Cell Signaling Orchestrates Loss of Tolerance and Systemic Autoimmunity
Harvey Lodish, PhD
Member, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research; Professor, Biology and Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Presentation: Self-Renewal of Human Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells: New Drugs to Treat Bone Marrow Failure Disorders and Other Erythropoietin-Resistant Anemias
Anjana Rao, PhD
Professor, Division of Signaling and Gene Expression, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology
Presentation: TET Proteins, 5-Methylcytosine Oxidation and Cancer
Cornelis Murre, PhD
Distinguished Professor, Molecular Biology, University of California San Diego
Presentation: 3D-Trajectories Adopted by Coding and Regulatory DNA Elements in Developing Lymphocytes
Event Materials
Featured Speakers and Topics:
Stanley Riddell, MD
Professor, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington School of Medicine
Presentation: Engineering Defined T Cell Cancer Therapeutics with Gene Transfer
Crystal MacKall, MD
Head, Immunology Section, Pediatric Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute
Presentation: Chimeric Antigen Receptor Based Adoptive T Cell Therapy for Cancer: Progress and Challenges
Pramod Srivastava, MD, PhD
Director, Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Connecticut
Presentation: Search for Truly Tumor-Specific Antigens
Linheng Li, PhD
Professor, Stowers Institute, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Presentation: Niche, Signaling, Epigenetic Regulation of Stem Cells
Stuart Orkin, MD
Chair, Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School
Presentation: Making Sense of Heterogeneity in the Hematopoietic System