Dear Presidents of Immunological Societies, Presidents of Federations of Immunological Societies, Colleagues and Friends,

This year has been extraordinary! The Sars-CoV-2 pandemic changed the world and like never before, immunologists were thrust into the limelight. Global co-operation, continuous professional education and public outreach were central to our response.

Our first-ever global webinar series focusing on Covid-19 drew nearly 9,000 participants from almost 90 countries. We hosted 20 scientific webinars over five months, drawing on leading experts within our IUIS community.  We had a total of twelve female and ten male speakers, covering Africa, South America, Europe and the United Kingdom, North America and Asia. This incredible resource is available on demand via our website and has already attracted over 10,000 views.  My sincere thanks go to all IUIS members who sacrificed their time to co-ordinate and participate in the webinars.  My special thanks go to Rita Carsetti, the chair of the Publication Committee for her vision and support.

A selection of our National Societies contributed to a Nature Immunology Review that highlighted our contributions to the pandemic. In addition to the development of diagnostics, immunotherapeutics and vaccines, we provided scientific advice to our governments, advocated for continued research funding and fostered global solidarity.

We responded to injustice that came to the fore through the untimely and horrific death of George Floyd and gave additional impetus to the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The IUIS anti-racism statement can be found on our website.

We are committed to gender equity in all our activities.  Our Executive Committee, Council and Committee Chairs now have a healthy female:male ratio of 3:2, 9:7 and 4:6, respectively.  Let’s keep up the progress!

We celebrated two female Nobel Laureates in the sciences in 2020; Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna. Although the prize was for Chemistry, Crispr-Cas9 has been instrumental in advancing immunology and is a testament to the benefits of inclusivity and gender equity.

We strengthened our relationship with Frontiers in Immunology through multiple shared and mutually beneficial initiatives.  Thanks to the dedication of our Secretary General Roslyn Kemp and the K.I.T. Group's staff, we now have a swanky, new, clean and easy-to-navigate website.  Our newly appointed scientific editor, Cheleka Mpande, curates and updates content and is growing our social media presence. Please contact her with items to share at this address: iuis.scientificeditor@gmail.com.

The IUIS investment into the FAIS Legacy Project (FLP) bore fruit with a 28-fold investment of 1.4M Euro from the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Union.  The FLP will run for ten years, aims to train 1,000 African immunologists and will draw on the momentum of the upcoming and historic IUIS Cape Town 2025 congress. The EU funding will support intra-African mobility between six African universities for 78 trainees over the next five years. We are grateful to the 2016-2019 IUIS Council for planting the seed for the FLP and thank you for your continued support. Do get in touch via our website to participate.  

My work would not have been possible without all of your input.  I particularly acknowledge the Executive Committee for their invaluable oversight and dedication, and our management office, K.I.T. Group, for their support. I sincerely thank all our IUIS committees, sub-committees and council members for their continued service.

As we end this historic year, Covid-19 vaccines are being rolled out and the need for immunologists is stronger than ever before. I am proud of all that we have achieved and look to 2021 with excitement.  

THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO BE AN IMMUNOLOGIST!
 

The Veterinary and Immunology Committee is very excited to announce that planning for the 2022 International Veterinary Immunology Symposium (IVIS 2022) is well under way. The symposium will be held in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, an iconic game reserve that boasts a state-of-the art conference facility. The symposium, surrounded by the sights and sounds of the African bushveld, promises to be an unforgettable opportunity to network with leading veterinary immunologists and to advance the discipline. The IVIS 2022 will be a satellite meeting of the 18^th International Congress of Immunology (IUIS 2022) and hybrid options for onsite and online attendance are under discussion. More details about IVIS 2022 can be found at http://ivis2022.org/ and we encourage you to register your interest in attending by clicking here. 

We welcome to the Union:

The International Cytokine & Interferon Society (ICIS) is the scientific family for over 1,100 scientists and physicians devoted to research in the fields of cytokine, interferon and chemokine cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry and the clinical use of these biological response modifiers. It provides common ground where scientists interested in all aspects of cytokine biology can join and work together to better human health.
Its annual meeting convenes the world’s experts on viruses and anti-viral responses, on the immune system and its functions in health and disease, impacting all aspects of medicine and leading to new treatments in autoimmune diseases, cancer, infectious diseases and inflammation. 
 

Apply for the Virtual IUIS-ALACI-ACAAI Immuno-Colombia 2021 focusing on “Mechanisms and Approaches to Immunotherapy for Cancer and Chronic Inflammatory Diseases” and taking place on April 5-16. The course aims to:

• Review immunological mechanisms and molecules targeted by immunotherapeutic strategies and clinical trials.
• Understand immune-related adverse events occurring with these therapies.
• Get acquainted with immunological monitoring and biomarkers of immunotherapy.
• Review potential new immunotherapeutic strategies.

Deadline: extended to 4th January 2021

Eligibilty: PhD students or postdocs in immunology and fellows in clinical specialties related to immunotherapy, such as clinical immunology, oncology, rheumatology, hematology. 

Immunopaedia.org.za is the official educational provider of pre-course and online IUIS immunology courses, where we have supported courses in south, west, north and east Africa, Latin America, India and Iran. Immunopaedia is open-access and delivers current educational content to provide frameworks of knowledge to IUIS course participants before they embark on face-to-face courses. Learn with free online courses (Learn More) or by exploring our real-life case studies with immunology explanations and quizzes. During 2020, Immunopaedia provided summaries of the latest research on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 immunology, as well as other immunology topics (Read Summaries). Immunopaedia in collaboration with the South African Immunological Society have organised a webinar series on COVID-19 (Watch Webinars). You can also “meet” prominent immunologists from across the globe either in written or video interviews or get to know our network of young up-and-coming immunologists through our Immunopaedia Ambassadors programme.

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