The
history of our Society is short. Originally
founded as “Society of Transplantation
and Innate Immunity (“STAII”),
the society has meanwhile metamorphosed
into a true multidisciplinary association
- as reflected by its byelaws to be read
below. Indeed, recent appreciation that
innate immunity provides much more than
an initial host defense against microbial
infection has propelled the subject to
the forefront of many fields. Thus, innate
immunity now is thought to provide a broad
range of protection against microbial infection
and, in addition, responds to injury-induced
tissue alteration to contribute to the
genesis of autoimmunity, response to vaccines,
surveillance against cancer and transplant
rejection leading to humoral and cellular
auto and alloimmune responses involved
in autoimmune diseases and transplantation.
Beyond these clearly immunological conditions,
innate immunity has been implicated in
allergy, atherosclerosis, malignancy, obesity,
and osteoporosis, conditions that plague
many patients including transplant recipients.
Whereas many investigators in the fields
of immunology, microbiology, infectious
diseases, atherosclerosis, complement,
etc., focus on innate immunity, relatively
few investigators in experimental and clinical
transplantation have taken up this topic
in their research programmes.
Accordingly, we have proposed the tentative
aims and scopes of the Society of Innate
Immunity as follows:
1) The Society
of Innate Immunity recognizes itself as
a scientific community which claims to
be devoted to generating new knowledge
and integrating the knowledge from different
medical and scientific fields in which
events of innate immunity have been recognized
to play a dominant and major pathogenic
role.
2) Members of the Society shall include those with clinical and/or research interests
in the fields of complement, immunology, microbiology, coagulation, vaccine design
and those with interest in cell and organ transplantation and may well include
those with interests in other diseases such as atherosclerosis, bone disease,
obesity, and vascular disease, among other fields. Given the diversity of the
potential membership, the society will have a central goal of promoting and facilitating
exchange of ideas, study designs, topics of research, data, etc. between the
disparate fields in the many locations and venues represented by the membership.
3) The Society should motivate and facilitate young investigators and clinicians
to pursue education, research, and eventually practice in matters pertaining
to innate immunity.
4) The Society should provide a forum that will bring together investigators
and clinicians in the disparate fields of innate immunity for presentation of
new research, discussion of ideas and initiation of collaborations.
5) The Society will serve as a source of expertise for governmental and private
agencies for such matters as the evaluation of research or clinical proposals,
the development of guidelines and the providing of advice.
6) The Society should encourage those involved in the development of agents,
therapeutics, and therapeutic regimens to consider implications of innate immunity
both to promote efficacy and as a potential complication. Thus, development of
agents that modify innate immunity and their application in the field of diseases
might be usefully considered such as therapeutics for infectious diseases, atherosclerosis,
malignancies, and transplantation complications, whilst such complications of
unwanted activation of innate immunity such as SIRS, depletion of complement,
and thrombosis are to be avoided.
Dear colleague, please, make up your mind and plan to attend our congress in
Ankara, Turkey in May 13-16 this year and be part of the beginning of what I
believe will become a flourishing multidisciplinary society dedicated to the
fascinating field of Innate Immunity.
Walter Gottlieb Land
President of “SII”