Atsushi Kumanogoh
Congress Chair, MMCB2020
Osaka University

This academic meeting is an international symposium organized by the Japanese Society for Molecular Cell Biology of Macrophages. It serves as a platform for specialists, ranging from basic researchers to clinicians in immunology, rheumatology, and medicine of connective tissue diseases, as well as other fields such as medical oncology, gastrointestinal medicine, endocrinology and metabolism, hematology, orthopedics, otolaryngology, respiratory medicine, nephrology, and molecular and cellular biology, to gather beyond interdisciplinary boundaries.

For the upcoming 27th meeting, programs have been planned under the theme, “Reverse translational research: unraveling life phenomena through the pathology of inflammatory diseases,” with an emphasis on building a foundation for both clarification of pathology of human diseases and development of next-generation therapeutics. As presenters, the world’s leading researchers whose work is related to this theme will be invited. To clarify the pathology of human diseases through the investigation of macrophages and inflammatory cells, the following four main topics have been specified:

i)

Tumor immunity and immunotherapy

ii)

Tissue-related immunocytes and diseases (including fibrosis)

iii)

Signal regulation of immune and inflammatory diseases (co-organized by the Japanese Society of Interferon & Cytokine Research)

iv)

Inflammatory bowel disease and enteric bacteria

In addition to the invited lectures, companies addressing these subjects will be asked to co-organize seminars in an effort to integrate basic and clinical research. All general presentations will be made in the form of poster sessions. Discussion time will be scheduled, and poster awards will be granted for excellent presentations by young researchers. All presentations and discussions will be conducted in English. The entire event will be held as an international academic meeting.

Over the past half century, immunological research has undergone dramatic advances, resulting in a large number of discoveries and new findings. During this period, immunology has been a driving force in medicine and life sciences. Progress in immunology, including breakthroughs related to the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, and psoriasis with anti-TNF-α antibodies, anti-IL-6 receptor antibodies, CTLA-4 protein, and JAK inhibitors, have had an enormous impact on present medicine and healthcare, from basic research to clinical medicine. Moreover, the establishment of cancer immunotherapy represented by treatment with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies led to the shift in main research subjects to human diseases, whether it is basic or clinical research. Remarkable technological innovations in analytical methods enabled this shift. It should be noted that these breakthroughs did not occur in a single research field, but in interdisciplinary research, in which basic researchers, clinicians, and pharmaceutical manufacturers collaborate and share information. To make clinically useful advances, efforts in all of these fields must be woven together. In recent years, aspects of medicine such as specialty and field have tended to be emphasized. However, it is important to further develop both basic and clinical research, incorporating the latest findings and technologies, including findings regarding inter-organ communication (nervous system, endocrine system, gastrointestinal system, etc.) based on immunology, clinical data, genomic big data, bioinformatics, technologies for imaging and image analysis, and artificial intelligence.

Given this mission, we hope that through this symposium we can contribute to victories over multiple diseases, including intractable ones, and maintenance of health on the basis of understanding of life principles. We invite you to participate in the 27th International Symposium on Molecular Cell Biology of Macrophages by presenting your research.