Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia meeting entitled Tissue-Resident Memory T Cells, organized by Cornelia L. Trimble, Rachael A. Clark and Leo Lefran?ois. The meeting will be held in Snowbird, Utah from January 12 - 16, 2014. The treatment of autoimmune disorders and vaccination strategies, to prevent or treat disease, share a common goal of manipulating a tissue-specific immune response. Much of our understanding of the initiation and resolution of an immune response is derived from studies of systemic, circulating immune cells. However, an accumulating body of evidence suggests that immune responses in peripheral tissues, especially in non-sterile barrier epithelial tissues, may differ significantly from immune responses measured in the blood. Tissue immune responses appear to be relatively sessile, and not readily detectable in the systemic circulation. The goal o this Keystone Symposia meeting on Tissue-Resident Memory T Cells is to bring together basic and clinical scientists studying mechanisms of innate and adaptive immune regulation. The program will raise questions of how to go about improving our understanding of the commonalities as well as the differences in how immune responses are generated, organized, and maintained in peripheral solid tissues.
Studies demonstrating the role of tissue T cells in the control of infectious challenges, in the development and/or prevention of cancer, and in autoimmune disorders, suggest strategies for therapeutic manipulation of the immune system in a tissue-specific way. The Keystone Symposia meeting on Tissue-Resident Memory T Cells will bring together basic and translational immunologists to discuss tissue-localized mechanisms of immune cell recruitment, retention, activation, and homeostasis. A better understanding of the biology of tissue-resident T cells will allow generations of better vaccination strategies for infections and cancer, as well as novel therapies for inflammatory and auto-immune diseases.
