Important Deadlines 

Early Registration Deadline: November 12, 2026 

Scholarship Deadline: September 15, 2026 

Short Talk Abstract Deadline: September 15, 2026 

Poster Abstract Deadline: December 21, 2026 

Meeting Summary 

Title: Innate immunity: Molecular mechanisms, Diseases & Therapeutics 

Date: January 11 - 14, 2027 
Location: Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, AB, Canada  

Scientific Organizers: Lingyin Li, Carina Cristina de Oliverira Mann, and Michael Cracktower 

Keynote Speaker(s): Catherine J Wu, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute 
Personalizing Medicine through Cancer Vaccines 

As the first line of defense, the innate immunity kick starts all downstream immunity. Therefore, all therapeutics that require adaptive immunity, including cancer immunotherapy, cannot succeed without appropriate and specific activation of the innate immunity against the real threat. On the flip side, the innate immunity does not react to specific threats, but rather molecular patterns that assemble pathogens and can react to our self DNA and RNA inappropriately during trauma, aging, autoimmune syndromes, or after an infection. The innate immunity is a fertile ground for therapeutic development, both for its activation and inhibition, because of its relevance in all these aforementioned physiologies. In addition, the innate immunity is poised for small molecule drug development because the pathways all recognize small molecule patterns. The challenges this meeting is hoping to address are how to achieve self vs. non-self-specificity in agonists development and understanding the master regulators/drug targets in antagonists development. We therefore propose that this meeting should first and foremost be molecular and mechanistic. Secondly, we discuss the relevance of each pathway in disease settings with an emphasis on their therapeutic relevance. Finally, we will hear hot off the press reports on how the first-generation drugs targeting nucleic acid-sensing pathways are doing in clinical trials from our industry and clinician presenters. We also propose joint talks with the T cell meeting that specifically elucidate how innate immune pathways cross-talk with intended or unintended T cell activation. This meeting will bring biochemists, molecular biologists, clinicians, and drug developers under one roof to facilitate clinical translation of this field. 

*This meeting will be held jointly with T Cells: From Basic Biology to Therapeutic Applications 

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For details on eligibility, deadlines, and how to apply for financial aid, visit: https://www.keystonesymposia.org/financial-aid.