2023 is an exciting time for our Society, with plenty of opportunities to connect with each other online and in person, learn together at both SMI and other events, and expand access to strong science.

One key change this year is the move of our journal, Mucosal Immunology, to Open Access with the partnership of Elsevier. We encourage you to visit the journal’s new online home at mucosalimmunology.org and follow the journal on Twitter (@MucosalImmunol) to see updates on newly published papers. A reminder that SMI members enjoy considerable savings on APCs, so be sure you’ve renewed your membership!

The Society is excited to announce the return of the Principles of Mucosal Immunology Course in virtual format this June 27-29. Drs. Joana Pereira da Neves, Andrea Reboldi and Pablo Romagnoli are serving as this year’s co-chairs, and we encourage you to watch for registration to open soon. Registration discounts for full lab group registrations are available, and this year we’re proud to offer free registration to anyone working in lower or middle-income countries through support of the Gates Foundation. The course will be offered with live-streamed sessions and available asynchronously to enable full access globally. Please watch for more information to be announced soon on the SMI website and through email and social media updates.

SMI also offers multiple other educational opportunities throughout this year. We have a strong list of scheduled webinars this year, and upcoming sessions at AAI this May and FOCIS in June. Additionally, we encourage you to look for fellow Society members at other events SMI is supporting this year, including the ASI Mucosal Immunology Special Interest group in May, EMIG in July, LAMIG 2023 and the IUIS meeting this November in South Africa.

Looking further ahead, we encourage you to mark your calendar and plan to attend ICMI 2024 the 6-10 of July, 2024 in Copenhagen. The International Planning Committee has been assembled and we look forward to presenting a strong scientific program with ample opportunities to network. Watch for more updates in your email inbox, and on the SMI website.

Wishing you all a successful 2024,

Bill Agace, PhD

SMI President 

The mission of the SMI Extramural Committee is to provide support for external meetings with the goal of advancing the field of mucosal immunology. With the return of in person events, SMI is excited to be a part of several conferences this year. You’ll find SMI around the world in 2023. 

High-fat diet-induced resistance to helminth infection via alternative induction of type 2 immunity

SMI member Richard Grencis and lab have recently shown that a high fat diet (HFD) can drive Type II immune responses which in turn induce resistance to helminth infection. Using a murine nematode model T. muris, they found a HFD drove an upregulation of the IL-33 receptor ST2 on CD4 T cells, which in turn induced a Th2 immune response resulting in enhanced parasite expulsion. Interestingly, they showed IL-33 signalling is not required to expel T. muris with IL-33 knockout mice still able to expel the parasite. However, they showed adoptive transfer of ST2-/- CD4 T cells resulted in an inability to expel the parasite, whereas ST2-sufficient cell adoptions retained resistance against T. muris. You can read more about this exciting research in this open access article only at Mucosal Immunology: https://www.mucosalimmunology.org/article/S1933-

0219(23)00004-1/fulltext

DOI: 10.1016/j.mucimm.2023.01.004

Spike-specific T cells are enriched in breastmilk following SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination

Spike-specific T cells are enriched in breastmilk following SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination

Check out the latest work by SMI member Whitney E Harrington and colleagues on the brand

new website of Mucosal Immunology on T cells in breastmilk and peripheral blood of lactating

individuals who received SARS-CoV-2 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccination. TCRs found in the

breast milk had limited overlap with the blood and contained complementarity-determining

regions in sequences for known epitopes. They we were able to detect SARS2 spike-specific

clones with high confidence in most individuals and their frequency increased after booster

vaccination. Read more at: https://www.mucosalimmunology.org/article/S1933-0219(23)00003-X/fulltext

Initiation of type 2 Immunity at barrier surfaces

SMI member Margaret McDaniel and colleagues reviewed how immune responses are elicited by type 2 stimuli. Given the diverse and wide range of type 2 stimuli, they focused on commonalities in how the host senses and responds to them. The authors further highlight the shared themes between distinct tissues and how these signals are integrated to mount a type 2 immune response. Read more exclusively at Mucosal Immunology: https://www.mucosalimmunology.org/article/S1933-0219(22)01181-3/fulltext

The 2023 Principles of Mucosal Immunology Course will be held June 27-29, 2023 virtually, with sessions focusing on both scientific and career development topics facilitated in three hour segments each day of the course.

Registrants have the opportunity to ask questions of all presenters live, with an online forum for additional questions and to engage in continued conversation with each other throughout the course and beyond after the course’s conclusion.

Registration coming in April!

ICMI 2024 will be held July 6-10, 2024 in Copenhagen, Denmark. ICMI is the only meeting that focuses exclusively on the interface between the immune system and the environment at mucosal surfaces for our global community. It is the perfect occasion for cross-fertilization between scientists, clinical researchers and industry professionals working on pathways of immunity and inflammation at mucosal surfaces.

SMI salutes, Kathryn Knoop, PhD! Dr. Knoop has recently been appointed a Young Professor Councilor for the SMI Board. Additionally, she is the new head of the Communications Committee for SMI. Having served as the social media editor of the journal Mucosal Immunology since 2017, Dr. Knoop is passionate about providing a strong virtual community for SMI members to increase global connectivity. In her research, Dr. Knoop is focused on neonatal mucosal immunity, how the developing intestinal microbiota influences the immune system, and how maternal components in breastmilk can influence intestinal microbial colonization and protect against pathogenic bacteria.

Contact: knoop.kathryn@mayo.edu

Twitter: @Kathrynated

Know an SMI member deserving to be spotlighted? Let SMI know.

• Postdoctoral Fellow - Michigan Medicine
• Postdoc in Mucosal Immunology - University of Chicago
• Postdoctoral Fellow - Center for Vaccine Development
• Postdoc in Mucosal Immunology - University of Denmark

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