DESCRIPTION (provided by the applicant): The proposed meeting on Gene Expression and Signaling in the Immune System, to be held in spring 2016, will focus on the most recent advances in this rapidly moving field. The meeting will be open, with attendance limited only by the facilities available to a maximum of 425 participants. Oral presentations will be delivered by a combination of invited speakers and those selected from submitted abstracts. This ensures the participation of junior and senior leaders in the field and the presentation of the most excitig results emerging at the time of the meeting. The oral presentations will be complemented by poster presentations in two sessions, also selected from submitted abstracts. The areas to be covered in the 2016 meeting include 1) Myeloid lineage cells and innate lymphocytes, 2) Transcriptional and post-transcriptional control of gene expression, 3) Chromatin regulation and epigenetic influences, 4) Lymphocyte differentiation and antigen receptor gene expression, 5) Signaling, 6) Innate sensors and regulation, 7) Immunoregulation, 8) Modes of intra- and intercellular communications. Rather than focusing on one particular type of immune cell or disease process, the meeting will highlight mechanistic approaches that aim to rigorously advance our knowledge of how the processes of signal transduction and gene regulation operate within the immune system. Ample opportunity is provided for junior scientists to present their results, and also for the presentation of important, late-breaking findings. The meeting format also ensures time for interactions between scientists, particularly during meals and in poster sessions. The meeting will foster interaction among immunologists working in related areas, and provide a forum for the development of new ideas and approaches to immune system signaling and gene expression.

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The immune system provides the body's major defense against both infectious diseases and cancer. It employs a wide variety of strategies to recognize and remove microbes and distressed cells, as well as providing the protective immunity against future infections that forms the basis of vaccination. The immune system may also respond too aggressively, as in various forms of allergy, or may attack the body's own cells, as in autoimmune diseases. The cells of the immune system have to interpret a wide variety of signals to response in an appropriate manner to a given challenge. How these signals are received, transmitted, and interpreted forms the scope of this important conference series. The series is notable because it attracts a unique group of immunologists focused on genes and their mechanisms of action whose research is at the cutting edge in defining how the immune system functions.