Scientific conferences are important drivers of innovation and institutional health, spreading cutting-edge, unpublished data, allowing scientists to test ideas in real time and helping host institutions recruit allies and future hires.
By that yardstick, the steady expansion of the Rutgers Health Institute for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases (i3D) biannual symposium says a lot about the institute's own growth.
This year's two-day meeting on "Immune and Metabolic Responses to Pathogens" in late May drew a record 150 attendees to the Paul Robeson Center in Newark. Organizers split 27 talks between Rutgers scientists and outside speakers, a deliberate choice to widen the conversation and raise i3D's profile beyond its campus.
New faculty members were front and center. Recently recruited i3D assistant professors Tania Wong and Jack Hsu built the program and emceed sessions ranging from immunometabolism and respiratory viruses to maternal-offspring immunity.
"Giving newer investigators a platform helps highlight emerging ideas and voices-it's a way to shape what comes next," Wong said.
Scientific highlights from external speakers underscored why metabolism has become a hot lever in immunity:
- Maxim Artyomov, a professor of pathology and immunology at Washington University in St. Louis, cautioned that the host metabolite itaconate, usually thought to reduce inflammation, can also contribute to inflammatory processes by inhibiting an antioxidant enzyme.
- Edward Pearce, a professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University, described metabolic oscillations that steer immune cell fate.
- Roi Avraham, a professor of immunology and regenerative medicine at Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science, revealed that immune cells from a human challenge model of Salmonella Typhi infection (only causes typhoid fever in humans) acquired a specific metabolic response pattern called "hypoxia signature" that contributes to disease.
- Other talks on metabolic signals that affect immune responses and disease outcomes in infection and cancer
"You could feel people connecting dots across fields," Wong said.
The pipeline was visible in the poster hall, where 40 trainees presented work and competed for cash awards of $500, $300 and $200, sponsored by Agilent Technologies. A Cell Reports editor, Dr. Jorge Santos, helped judge, and virology projects swept the prizes.
"The energy at the posters tells you where a place is heading," said William Gause, director of i3D.
Industry helped foot the bill, with Agilent Technologies Inc. leading a list of sponsors that included several life science suppliers (Sable Systems International, Waters Corporation, BioLegend, New England Biolabs, among others. Gause said that kind of backing doesn't just make the coffee breaks better. It seeds relationships that can turn into collaborative grants, he said.
i3D alternates external symposia with internal retreats in the off years to keep momentum without overtaxing labs.
After spring's turnout, Gause said the plan is simple: "Do it again, cover a new area, bring in new voices."
