Content area
Full Text
M E E T I N G R E P O RT
The 2010 Midwinter Conference of Immunologists at Asilomar
2010 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.
Stephen P Schoenberger, Hilde Cheroutre, Christel Uittenbogaart & Ann Marshak-Rothstein
A diverse group of immunologists gathered recently at Asilomar, California, to discuss advances in the theory and practice of their field. The pristine setting and informal atmosphere have always made this a unique and memorable conference.
Arecurring conference can rightfully lay claim to the term venerable by maintain
ing its unique character and authentic relevance to the community of scientists it serves even as it approaches its sixth decade of life. Such was the case for the 49th Midwinter Conference of Immunologists held 2326 January 2010 under the mildly inclement skies that might be expected on Californias Monterey Peninsula in late January. The objective for this conference has traditionally been to present a survey of the best of immunology under a variety of themes, and this years event did not disappoint. Keynote speaker Vishva Dixit (South San Francisco, California, USA) discussed during his Dan H. Campbell Memorial Lecture how ubiquitin editing regulates immune activation by the transcription factor NF-KB pathway. A number of components in this pathway are activated by an unusual form of ubiquitin polymerization at conserved Lys63 (K64) residues, in marked contrast to the well-known degradative linkage that involves ubiquitinyla-
tion at K48. The evolutionarily conserved A20 protein serves a key role in this process, as it has both a ubiquitin hydrolase and a ubiquitin ligase domain, through which it can remove polyubiquitin from K63 on activated proteins and target them for proteasomal destruction by addition of ubiquitin at K48. The idea of a suppressive role for A20 is supported by reports indicating that A20 is commonly deleted or mutationally inactivated in diffuse large B cell lymphoma associated with constitutive NF-KB activation.
The next day, Eicke Latz (Bonn) began the first session, entitled Triggering the Innate Immune System, by presenting compelling data showing that the innate immune system has evolved means to recognize phase transitions of molecules from soluble to crystalline as a potential danger to the host. For example, the NLRP3 inflammasome can be activated by endogenous crystalline substances, such as monosodium urate, that can...