What is macroecology?

The symposium ‘What is Macroecology?’ was held in London on 20 June 2012. The event was the inaugural meeting of the Macroecology Special Interest Group of the British Ecological Society and was attended by nearly 100 scientists from 11 countries. The meeting reviewed the recent development of the macroecological agenda. The key themes that emerged were a shift towards more explicit modelling of ecological processes, a growing synthesis across systems and scales, and new opportunities to apply macroecological concepts in other research fields.     

Contemporary topics in immunology: approaches to immunotherapy emerging from basic research.

The seventh symposium in the series "Contemporary Topics in Immunology" was held on April 21, 1991, at the FASEB meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. It was sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, The American Association of Immunologists, and the Clinical Immunology Society. Five topics were discussed by leading researchers in areas of immunology that currently are of exceptional interest and show promise of leading to new advances in the prevention and treatment of human diseases. The topics included: the interactions between immunogenic peptides, class I MHC molecules and T cell receptors; initiation, maintenance, and breakdown of self-tolerance in B lymphocytes; inflammatory disease in HLA-B27 transgenic rats; properties and functions of interleukin-10; and transforming growth factor-beta in reproductive immunology. The exceptional quality of the presentations in this seventh symposium exemplified perfectly the path of basic research that often leads from the laboratory to the clinic.     

An illuminated view of molecular biology

A report on the 18th Annual International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) and the 7th Special Interest Group meeting on Alternative Splicing, Boston, USA, 9-13 July 2010.     

Announcing the call for the Special Issue on the 20th International Congress of the International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB)—virtual meeting,October 2021

This Commentary describes a call for submissions for the upcoming Special Issue focused on the science presented at the 20^th IUPAB Congress to be held in conjunction with the 45^th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Biophysical Society and the 49^th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 20^th International IUPAB Congress will take place as a virtual meeting this year from October 4 to 8, 2021. This triennial IUPAB Congress will be held in loose conjunction with the 45^th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Biophysical Society and the 49^th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. To act as a complement to this virtual meeting, the Biophysical Reviews journal will base a Special Issue on the scientific topics of the meeting contributors selected from the range of invited speakers and poster presenters. This Special Issue will also work to highlight the host country’s (Brazil) National Biophysical Society. Finally, this Special Issue will also serve to publish the meeting abstracts in supplemental form.Review articles from IUPAB Congress speakers and poster presenters to the IUPAB Congress and associated conferences (the 45^th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Biophysical Society and the 49^th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) are solicited. Similar to the SI based on the 19^th IUPAB Congress held in Edinburgh summarizing Commentaries from session chairs are also requested (Hall and dos Remedios 2017). The Special Issue for the 20^th IUPAB International Congress will be prepared and edited by the current authors (Rosangela Itri, Mauricio Baptista, Richard Garratt, and Antonio Jose Costa-Filho).     

Contributions of basic immunology to human health.

The sixth symposium in the series "Contemporary Topics in Immunology" was held in New Orleans on June 3, 1990, at the joint meeting of The American Association of Immunologists and the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The symposium was sponsored jointly by The American Association of Immunologists, the Clinical Immunology Society, and and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and was titled "The Contributions of Basic Immunology to Human Health." Five speakers, whose research has clear relevance to the treatment and prevention of major human diseases, discussed topics of great current interest: hematopoietic stem cells, cell adhesion and lymphocyte homing; the complexities of autoimmunity and approaches to diverting or depressing autoaggressive immunity; structure and functions of the interferons and the construction of designer and chimeric interferons; the varied functions of transforming growth factors and molecular events that regulate the synthesis of TGF beta; and the roles of cytokines in the expression of human immunodeficiency virus and the prospects for controlling HIV infections by regulating selected cytokines. This symposium will be remembered for the exceptional clarity with which each speaker illustrated how fundamental knowledge in immunology fuels advances in the treatment and prevention of those human disorders that involve the immune system.     

Meeting report from the 7th International Melanoma Congress, Sydney, November, 2010

The 2010 7th International Melanoma Congress sponsored by the Society for Melanoma Research and held in Sydney, Australia, was held together with the International Melanoma and Skin Cancer Centers group and the International Melanoma Pathology Study Group. As a consequence, there were over 900 registrants that included a wide range of clinicians (surgeons, medical oncologists, dermatologists) specialising in the management of melanoma as well as scientists and students carrying out laboratory-based research in melanoma. There was a general consensus that this grouping of clinicians, pathologists and scientists was mutually advantageous and plans are afoot to continue this grouping in future meetings. The meeting was dominated by the advances being made in treatment of melanoma with selective BRAF inhibitors but interest in epithelial mesenchymal transition and phenotypic changes in melanoma was apparent in many of the talks. The authors have attempted to capture many of the new developments in melanoma research but apologize to those speakers and poster presenters who had equally important findings not captured in these summaries.     

Meeting Report: "Metagenomics, Metadata and Meta-analysis" (M3) Special Interest Group at ISMB 2009

This report summarizes the proceedings of the "Metagenomics, Metadata and Meta-analysis" (M3) Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting held at the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology 2009 conference. The Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC) hosted this meeting to explore the bottlenecks and emerging solutions for obtaining biological insights through large-scale comparative analysis of metagenomic datasets. The M3 SIG included 16 talks, half of which were selected from submitted abstracts, a poster session and a panel discussion involving members of the GSC Board. This report summarizes this one-day SIG, attempts to identify shared themes and recapitulates community recommendations for the future of this field. The GSC will also host an M3 workshop at the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) in January 2010. Further information about the GSC and its range of activities can be found at http://gensc.org/.     

Meeting Report: Metagenomics, Metadata and MetaAnalysis (M3) at ISMB 2010

This report summarizes the proceedings of the first day of the Metagenomics, Metadata and MetaAnalysis (M3) workshop held at the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology 2010 conference. The second day, which was dedicated to the inaugural meeting of the BioSharing initiative is presented in a separate report. The Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC) hosted the first day of this Special Interest Group (SIG) at ISMB to continue exploring the bottlenecks and emerging solutions for obtaining biological insights through large-scale comparative analysis of metagenomic datasets. The M3 SIG included invited and selected talks and a panel discussion at the end of the day involving the plenary speakers. Further information about the GSC and its range of activities can be found at http://gensc.org. Information about the newly established BioSharing effort can be found at http://biosharing.org/.     

Ecology,evolution and genetics join together on Canada's east coast

The 4th regular meeting of the Canadian Society of Ecology and Evolution was held in conjunction with the 52nd Annual Conference of the Genetics Society of Canada at Dalhousie University, Halifax, from 14 to 17 May 2009.     

ISAG/IUIS-VIC Comparative MHC Nomenclature Committee report, 2005

Nomenclature for Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) genes and alleles in species other than humans and mice has historically been overseen either informally by groups generating sequences, or by formal nomenclature committees set up by the International Society for Animal Genetics (ISAG). The suggestion for a Comparative MHC Nomenclature Committee was made at the ISAG meeting held in Göttingen, Germany (2002), and the committee met for the first time at the Institute for Animal Health, Compton, UK in January 2003. To publicize its activity and extend its scope, the committee organized a workshop at the International Veterinary Immunology Symposium (IVIS) in Quebec (2004) where it was decided to affiliate with the Veterinary Immunology Committee (VIC) of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). The goals of the committee are to establish a common framework and guidelines for MHC nomenclature in any species; to demonstrate this in the form of a database that will ensure that in the future, researchers can easily access a source of validated MHC sequences for any species; to facilitate discussion on this area between existing groups and nomenclature committees. A further meeting of the committee was held in September 2005 in Glasgow, UK. This was attended by most of the existing committee members with some additional invited participants (Table 1). The aims of this meeting were to facilitate the inclusion of new species onto the database, to discuss extension, improvement and funding of the database, and to address a number of nomenclature issues raised at the previous workshop.     

The Genetics Society of Canada takes a flight with Drosophila to celebrate its 50th year

The Genetics Society of Canada (GSC) held its 50th Anniversary Celebration June 18-21, 2007 in the New Residence Hall of McGill University in Montreal in conjunction with the 9(th) Canadian Drosophila Research Conference (CanFly), which is held in odd-numbered years. The meeting was a huge success with nearly 200 participants, and outstanding research presentations from all parts of Canada and beyond. The Canadian Drosophila research community is very vibrant: there are approximately 50 research labs in the country that work entirely or mostly in the Drosophila system, and a search of FlyBase for Canadian addresses yields a total of 248.     

The Genetics Society of Canada Takes a Flight with Drosophila to Celebrate Its 50th Year

From 18-21 June 2007, the Genetics Society of Canada (GSC) held its 50th anniversary celebration in the New Residence Hall of McGill University in Montreal in conjunction with the 9th Canadian Drosophila Research Conference (CanFly), which is held in odd-numbered years. The meeting was a huge success with nearly 200 participants, and outstanding research presentations from all parts of Canada and beyond. The Canadian Drosophila research community is very vibrant: there are approximately 50 research labs in the country that work entirely or mostly in the Drosophila system, and a search of FlyBase for Canadian addresses yields a total of 248.     

Comparative Immunology

Comparative Immunology includes an evolutionary approach toimmunity revealing the immune system as widespread and necessaryfor survival. Although many immunology textbooks and coursesare often oriented solely toward medicine orallied professions,comparative immunology is a unique beginning for advanced undergraduatestudents of biology, zoology, and immunology. A more biologicapproach to immune competence causes mammalian immunologiststo view comparative immunology as an introduction to numerousectothermic vertebrates and invertebrates. Such exotic animalsare sources of meaningful facts important for anyone viewingsignificant breakthroughs in immunology in phylogenetic perspective.Animals preserve their unique individuality by distinguishingbetween self and non-self to protect against infection and possibleextinction. The earliest beginnings of immune reactions arebest exemplified among the invertebrates by recognition, phagocytosis,graft rejection accompanied by specificity and weak memory,and the induction of agglutinins and lectins. Although vertebratesshare these same responses, the main differences include moreextensive evidence of specificity and memory and the uniquecapacity to synthesize immunoglobulins. Acknowledging the problemof recognition as the common basis for the immune response,certain members of the Ig superfamily, notably Thy-1 and ß₂-microglobulin,will help our attempts to define evolutionary pressures thatcaused the development of immunity.     

Chasing coccidia--new tools enter the race

The 8th International Coccidiosis Conference, held on 9--13 July 2001 in Palm Cove, Australia, was a showcase of the latest studies on widely known coccidia, including Eimeria and Toxoplasma in addition to the emerging or re-emerging parasites such as Neospora, Cryptosporidium and Cyclospora. This meeting was staged in conjunction with the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Society for Parasitology.     

“微生物、免疫与感染性疾病”整合课程师资培养的研究与实践

“微生物、免疫与感染性疾病整合课程”的师资培养是一个重要的问题。本教研室建立了《微生物、免疫与感染性疾病整合课程青年教师培养制度》,通过对青年教师的系统培训,提高青年教师对免疫学相关学科的理解,使其能够胜任“微生物、免疫与感染性疾病整合课程”的教学工作。     

The 12th Human Liver Proteome Project (HLPP) Workshop,September 2010, Sydney,Australia

The 12th HLPP workshop was held in conjunction with the 9th HUPO 2010 World Congress on September 20th in Sydney, Australia. This 2‐h workshop was chaired by Prof. Fuchu He (Beijing Proteome Research Center). Highlights included: (i) progress of the post‐translational modification of liver proteome; (ii) construction of the human liver protein interaction and localization maps; (iii) progress made in terms of identifying biomarker for liver diseases; and (iv) discussion on the second phase of the initiative. This was followed by a lively discussion related to the project.     

MAGNETIC FIELDS AND CONNECTIVE TISSUE REGULATION

Most clinically used magnetotherapies are supported by “black box” experimental and clinical data. On May 19, 2000, a meeting of the Working Group ‘Electrophysiology of Bone’ of the German Society of Osteology was held in Berlin to discuss the basic mechanisms of pathophysiological regulation to explain the therapeutic significance of various modes of clinical magnetotherapies.

This short paper outlines the discussion held at that meeting, which searched for a rational scientific understanding or basis for the use of various clinical magnetotherapies.     

Mucosal and systemic immune responses of mice to tetanus toxoid coadministered nasally with AFCo1

Mucosal immune responses are an early and important line of defense against pathogens. The current understanding of the mucosal immune system allows us to consider the use of nasal immunization for induction of antigen-specific immune responses at the mucosal surface and the systemic compartment. Mucosal adjuvants are key for developing novel mucosal vaccines and represent 1 approach to improving mucosal and systemic immunity. However, few mucosal vaccine adjuvants are currently approved for human use. Neisseria meningitidis B proteoliposome-derived cochleate (AFCo1 - Adjuvant Finlay Cochleate 1) has been demonstrated to be a potent mucosal adjuvant. The present work demonstrates that intranasal immunization of 3 doses of tetanus toxoid (TT) coadministered with AFCo1 in mice promotes high systemic and mucosal responses. The anti-TT IgG serum titers and the mucosal anti-TT IgA in saliva and vaginal wash were significantly higher than TT alone. The analysis of antibody subclasses showed that intranasal administration of AFCo1 + TT induced not only IgG1 but also IgG2a anti-TT antibodies at levels comparable to those obtained with TT vaccine (vax-TET). These data support the fact that AFCo1 is a potent mucosal adjuvant in nasal immunization to a coadministered protein antigen.     

黏膜免疫佐剂研究进展

黏膜免疫可以保护黏膜表面防止病毒入侵,也是对外周免疫病理性紊乱的一种有效的免疫处理方式。有效的黏膜免疫应答通常依赖于合适的佐剂,以引发机体从先天性免疫向适应性免疫过渡。目前,有3种细胞产物具有作为黏膜免疫佐剂的潜力,它们是ADP-核糖基化的肠毒素(霍乱毒素和大肠杆菌不耐热肠毒素)、人工合成的非甲基化的CpG二核苷酸序列,以及单磷酰基类脂A。本文综述了不同黏膜免疫佐剂的可能作用机制及其功能,概述了近期应用研究的进展。