The Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) meeting provides a scientific forum to foster the crossdisciplinary approach required to understand and treat immune-based diseases as the discipline of clinical immunology evolves. The evolution is a reflection of the shared pathophysiology of many diseases, including: autoimmune diseases, cancer, allergy/asthma, infectious diseases, immune deficiency, and transplant rejection. While clinicians necessarily remain linked to diseases associated with their own specialty, the immunological sciences underlying recent advances in diagnosing and treating these diverse diseases are multidisciplinary and cut across standard clinical boundaries. The ultimate goal of the FOCIS meeting is to create a better understanding of the shared pathophysiological underpinnings of clinical immunology and the new therapeutic approaches suggested by these novel relationships, including the increasingly widespread use of biologics in therapy. In addition to highlighting the best science in the field, the FOCIS meeting is an incubator for developing scientists and practitioners alike to meet with one another and representatives of the relevant biotech and pharmaceutical industry whose combined support is invaluable to the success of this meeting. Each day includes poster presentations and oral abstract presentations to allow young scientists as well as senior investigators the chance to have their work presented and critiqued. By sharing discoveries with one another, delegates acquire new ideas for research and applied science from disciplines to which they would otherwise not be exposed at disease- or organ-specific meetings.
