Innate Immune Memory: Mechanisms and Consequences - ABSTRACT
Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled Innate Immune Memory: Mechanisms and
Consequences, organized by Drs. Shruti Naik, Keke Fairfax and Renato Ostuni. The conference will be held in
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from February 2–5, 2025.
Inflammatory memory is a remnant of anti-pathogen responses that may be adaptive or maladaptive, leading to
inflammatory, metabolic, and neurodegenerative diseases, and cancers. This conference was designed to
highlight epigenetic mechanisms and consequences of inflammatory memory for human health and disease.
Sessions will focus on the mechanisms underlying the formation and maintenance of innate memory across a
spectrum of immune and non-immune cell types as well as the inter- and transgenerational inheritance of
memory and disease phenotypes. Other sessions will cover the contribution of inflammatory training to chronic
diseases and the role of environmental pollutants in inflammatory imprinting and disease susceptibility. This
conference will bring together experts in innate immunity, epigenetics, and disease biology, spanning diverse
cell types and disease indication, to facilitate interdisciplinary interactions in this emerging field. The conference
will be held jointly with the Keystone Symposia conference on T Cell Differentiation in Tissue Microenvironments
to enable cross-disciplinary insights and collaborations towards understanding interconnectedness of innate and
adaptive immunity. This provides a unique opportunity to understand non-cognate memory in adaptive immune
cells and the beneficial role of innate training in anti-pathogen and vaccine responses. In addition, the conference
will include panel discussions on controversial topics including mechanisms of transgenerational inheritance in
mammals and the role of inflammatory memory in inflammaging. This dynamic forum on inflammatory memory
will bridge several different research communities and provide insights that forecast future directions in
modulation of immune memory for therapeutics across a wide range of diseases.
