ImmunologyToday, Vol. 9, No. 5, 1988
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molecules. C. Auffray (Nogent-surMarne, France) has identified sequences in class II molecules and CD4 which resemble the tetrapeptide cell attachment site of fibronectin. These peptides will inhibit the proliferation of helper T cells and may represent the basis of interactions between class II and CD4.
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Future prospects These international workshops are elaborate affairs requiring a considerable commitment in time, personnel and resources from all the participating laboratories. As deadlines approach the workshop assignment takes over, a degree of panic sets in and the value of the enterprise is severely questioned. Some believe that the need for these enormous collaborative experiments is over, arguing that the early days provided a peculiar situation which does not apply today. That may or may not be true but I don't think it matters. In addition to completing important projects that no individual could or would want to do, the workshops stimulate individual efforts that might otherwise not occur. As shown by the New York meeting, they can provide a mechanism for change and innovation that could only occur in a fragmentary and divergent fashion if left up to individual laboratories, or regional associations of laboratories. Their assets are the tradition of international cooperation combined with an anarchic system of rotating dictatorship by which the individual work-
In recent years it has been traditional for Walter Bodmer (ICRF, London) to summarize the proceedings of the histocompatibility workshop and conference and for Julia Bodmer (ICRF,London) to provide poetic commentary. (Lukes and Gillespie are the names of HLA alloantisera.)
Where are we now Mac7 Thirty yearso~ we forgetfully wonder What it was like to define HLA: Three drops of white cells,three drops of serum Gave Lukesand Gillespie, 4b and 4a. Ten workshops later, we really are moving We've sequencedand crystallizedmuchHLA We can open the molecule and view many epitopes And guessat their function by position and lay. So armed with this knowledge we go to the battle With AIDSand diseaseswhich plague ustoday Match grafts where they matter and alter receptors And change the expression of our old HLA. J. Bodmer
shops are run. The next workshop is planned for 1991 and will be held in Japan. Now is the time to return to anthropology and the detailed comparison of diverse human populations. This was the subject of the fifth workshop, which first saw intrepid HLA typers scouring jungle, desert and ocean in search of interesting blood. In 1972 class II typing was nonexistent and the discrimination of class I typing was rudimentary. With 15 years further experience and better methods hopefully it will be possible in this one species to finally plumb the depths of MHC polymorphism.
75 years of the AAI The American Association of Immunologists (AAI) is currently celebrating its 75tli anniversary. The association began life on 19 June 1913 and will be commemorating its 75 years, slightly early, at the 1988 meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB 1988), which begins on Sunday 1 May in Los Angeles, USA. The AAI-NIAID Symposium on Contemporary Topics in Immunology, scheduled for Sunday 1 May, will cover four main areas, each area being given an historical and a contemporary perspective. Organized by B.W. Janicki, J.F. Albright and Sheldon Cohen, the four topics comprise the control of antibody- stance, the interactions among immunomediated hypersensitivity, the im- logically functional cells and immunity to munogenetics of histocompatibility sub- viruses. ~
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I thank Elizabeth Boudart for preparation of this report. References 1 Svejgaard,A. etal. (1979) TheHIA System: An Introductory Survey (Monographs in Human Genetics Vol. 7), S. Karger 2 Snell, G.D., Dausset,J. and Nathenson, S. (1976) Histocompatibility, Academic Press 3 Bjorkman, P.J.,Saper, M.A., Samraoui, B. et al. (1987) Nature 329, 506-5!2 4 Parham, P. lmmunol. Today 9, 65-68
Peter Parham is in the Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Monday 2 May includes a Symposium on Molecular and Genetic Immunoprobes for Biotechnology (organized by Everly Conway de Macario), while Tuesday 3 May features the association's Celebratory Symposium on Perspectives in Immunology which is co-chaired by Michael Heidelberger and AAI President Donald Shreffler, and features among others former AAI presidents Baruj Benacerraf, Elvin A. Kabat and David W. Talmage. Sessions of the AAI/FASEB Theme Symposium on Receptors and Growth Factors, organized by J.J. Oppenheim, will take place throughout the week.
•
Immunology Today extends its warm congratulations to the association for its achievements to date and wishes it every success in the fut,~re.
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molecules. C. Auffray (Nogent-surMarne, France) has identified sequences in class II molecules and CD4 which resemble the tetrapeptide cell attachment site of fibronectin. These peptides will inhibit the proliferation of helper T cells and may represent the basis of interactions between class II and CD4.
~ -
Future prospects These international workshops are elaborate affairs requiring a considerable commitment in time, personnel and resources from all the participating laboratories. As deadlines approach the workshop assignment takes over, a degree of panic sets in and the value of the enterprise is severely questioned. Some believe that the need for these enormous collaborative experiments is over, arguing that the early days provided a peculiar situation which does not apply today. That may or may not be true but I don't think it matters. In addition to completing important projects that no individual could or would want to do, the workshops stimulate individual efforts that might otherwise not occur. As shown by the New York meeting, they can provide a mechanism for change and innovation that could only occur in a fragmentary and divergent fashion if left up to individual laboratories, or regional associations of laboratories. Their assets are the tradition of international cooperation combined with an anarchic system of rotating dictatorship by which the individual work-
In recent years it has been traditional for Walter Bodmer (ICRF, London) to summarize the proceedings of the histocompatibility workshop and conference and for Julia Bodmer (ICRF,London) to provide poetic commentary. (Lukes and Gillespie are the names of HLA alloantisera.)
Where are we now Mac7 Thirty yearso~ we forgetfully wonder What it was like to define HLA: Three drops of white cells,three drops of serum Gave Lukesand Gillespie, 4b and 4a. Ten workshops later, we really are moving We've sequencedand crystallizedmuchHLA We can open the molecule and view many epitopes And guessat their function by position and lay. So armed with this knowledge we go to the battle With AIDSand diseaseswhich plague ustoday Match grafts where they matter and alter receptors And change the expression of our old HLA. J. Bodmer
shops are run. The next workshop is planned for 1991 and will be held in Japan. Now is the time to return to anthropology and the detailed comparison of diverse human populations. This was the subject of the fifth workshop, which first saw intrepid HLA typers scouring jungle, desert and ocean in search of interesting blood. In 1972 class II typing was nonexistent and the discrimination of class I typing was rudimentary. With 15 years further experience and better methods hopefully it will be possible in this one species to finally plumb the depths of MHC polymorphism.
75 years of the AAI The American Association of Immunologists (AAI) is currently celebrating its 75tli anniversary. The association began life on 19 June 1913 and will be commemorating its 75 years, slightly early, at the 1988 meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB 1988), which begins on Sunday 1 May in Los Angeles, USA. The AAI-NIAID Symposium on Contemporary Topics in Immunology, scheduled for Sunday 1 May, will cover four main areas, each area being given an historical and a contemporary perspective. Organized by B.W. Janicki, J.F. Albright and Sheldon Cohen, the four topics comprise the control of antibody- stance, the interactions among immunomediated hypersensitivity, the im- logically functional cells and immunity to munogenetics of histocompatibility sub- viruses. ~
130
ii
~j
i~1
r-
I thank Elizabeth Boudart for preparation of this report. References 1 Svejgaard,A. etal. (1979) TheHIA System: An Introductory Survey (Monographs in Human Genetics Vol. 7), S. Karger 2 Snell, G.D., Dausset,J. and Nathenson, S. (1976) Histocompatibility, Academic Press 3 Bjorkman, P.J.,Saper, M.A., Samraoui, B. et al. (1987) Nature 329, 506-5!2 4 Parham, P. lmmunol. Today 9, 65-68
Peter Parham is in the Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Monday 2 May includes a Symposium on Molecular and Genetic Immunoprobes for Biotechnology (organized by Everly Conway de Macario), while Tuesday 3 May features the association's Celebratory Symposium on Perspectives in Immunology which is co-chaired by Michael Heidelberger and AAI President Donald Shreffler, and features among others former AAI presidents Baruj Benacerraf, Elvin A. Kabat and David W. Talmage. Sessions of the AAI/FASEB Theme Symposium on Receptors and Growth Factors, organized by J.J. Oppenheim, will take place throughout the week.
•
Immunology Today extends its warm congratulations to the association for its achievements to date and wishes it every success in the fut,~re.
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