The deadline to submit an abstract for short talk and poster presentation consideration has passed.  For any questions or issues, please email info@keystonesymposia.org.

Unraveling the complexity of the immune system has been traditionally approached by experimental immunologists studying individual molecules, cell types, or cell-cell interaction pairs. These efforts have contributed significantly to our understanding of the mechanisms that control immune system function. However, immune responses emerge from complex interactions among heterogenous and dynamic elements that act across many biological scales. However, understanding the emergent properties of immune responses and how those differ across individuals in the human population are often beyond the limits of biological intuition and requires integration of quantitative, high-dimensional datasets combined with computational modeling and analyses. To address this need, researchers are combining diverse top-down and bottom-up approaches from immunology and computational and systems biology, leading to a new field of systems immunology. In parallel, advances in synthetic biology, gene editing (e.g., CRISPR), and the clinical success of immune cell therapies in cancer have propelled synthetic immune cell engineering to the forefront.

Very few meetings, if any, integrate these two exciting developments - systems and engineering immunology – on equal footings to highlight and discuss technology and immunological advances and knowledge gaps. There is much natural synergy between systems immunology – with the goal of having a predictive and quantitative understanding of the immune system – and immune cell engineering. For example, systems immunology would empower precise engineering and deployment of synthetic immune cells, which in turn can help advance fundamental understanding of the immune system itself. Through both plenary presentations and workshops, this meeting aims to foster interactions between these two emerging communities of researchers and practitioners. The program will highlight the latest technological advances and their applications in cancer, infectious diseases, and autoimmunity, and facilitate discussions on challenges integrating both fields as well as emerging challenges and opportunities. The conference will be held jointly with the Keystone Symposium  on Innate Immunity, to enable cross-disciplinary insights and collaborations towards utilization of systems immunology tools to advance our understanding of innate immunity in health and disease.