: Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia meeting entitled Immunometabolism in Immune Function and Inflammatory Disease, organized by Jeffrey C. Rathmell, Jonathan D. Powell and Amira Klip. The meeting will be held in Banff, Alberta, Canada from February 21-25, 2016. It is now evident that an integral component of immune regulation is through the metabolic pathways necessary to support energetically demanding protective or pathogenic responses. Deciphering these links in the emerging field of immunometabolism is critical to understanding basic immune function. Activation, differentiation and function of M1 & M2 macrophages, Th1, Th2, Th17 & T regulatory T cells as well as effector and memory CD8+ T cells are all inexorably linked to pathways that regulate cellular metabolism. Likewise, systemic metabolism and metabolic diseases are very much influenced by immunity, as the metabolic syndrome in obesity is mediated in part by dysregulated immune cells similar to inflammatory and autoimmune disease states. This meeting will address how immune cells and functions rely upon and are controlled by specific metabolic pathways and nutrient availability and will bridge systemic and cellular metabolic regulation of immune function. Metabolic reprogramming in the activation of adaptive and innate immune cells and the regulation and role of specific metabolic programs in distinct lymphocyte or macrophage subsets will be addressed. The conference will also present new findings on signaling pathways and the influence of immune cell metabolism on anti-tumor immunity, autoimmunity and metabolic diseases. It is anticipated this meeting will be of broad interest to the immunology and metabolic communities. The focus of this meeting on how factors that influence immune cell metabolism impact a variety of inflammatory disorders will provide new fundamental insight into normal immune function as well as opportunities to treat immunological and metabolic diseases. Opportunities for interdisciplinary interactions will be significantly enhanced by the concurrent meeting on New Frontiers in Understanding Tumor Metabolism, which will share an opening keynote and plenary session with this meeting.
Recent studies have demonstrated that an integral component of immune regulation is through the metabolic pathways necessary to support energetically demanding protective or pathogenic responses. These discoveries have opened a new direction in our understanding of immune regulation and modulation. Thus, the goal of the Keystone Symposia meeting on Immunometabolism in Immune Function and Inflammatory Disease is to discuss how the metabolism of immune cells is regulated and alters immunological function. This meeting is distinct in that it brings a unique perspective to this topic: focusing o how factors that influence immune cell metabolism impact a variety of inflammatory disorders, and providing new fundamental insight into normal immune function as well as opportunities to treat immunological and metabolic diseases.
