Immune responses rely on the dynamic coordination of diverse immune cell types. Each immune cell must sense and respond appropriately to signals while integrating information about the tissue context. Immune cells communicate with each other and with tissue cells, enabling coordination at the physiological scale. Dysregulation of these immune signaling processes, whether defective or over-active, underlie a majority human pathologies. While past efforts have focused on identifying aberration in singular signaling mechanisms, it is clear that this reductionist approach is limited, and a holistic systems-level approach is required to better understand tissue, organ, and organism- level immune responses, and how to correct them in the context of disease.

The program will cover recent technological advances of next-generation sequencing and mass spectrometry which fuel top-down systems immunology approaches that enable statistical inference of signaling events within and between cells, and in space. At the same time, we will integrate advances in bottom-up systems biology approaches, which leverage knowledge of molecular mechanisms of immune signaling, enabling us to dissect the non-linear and dynamic interplay between molecular pathways and cells. This Keystone Symposia meeting offers a timely opportunity to explore the synergies between these two complementary approaches that have made rapid progress in recent years.

Speakers will highlight different cutting-edge research and techniques to study diverse physiological and pathological phenomena at different scales, thereby leading to the kind of cross-pollination and spirited discussions that inform future research.  Additionally, this meeting will be held jointly with the Keystone Symposium on “Immunometabolism Across Scales: From Cells to Systems to Healthspan,” to enable cross-disciplinary insights and collaborations to better understand the complexities of immunometabolic mechanisms and contributions to disease.