Prof Casey Weaver, USA: The Jonathan Boulter Memorial Lecture 2009
"Th17: the discovery and emergence of a new T cell lineage"
- Date
- 7th October 2009
In memory of our colleague and friend Dr Jonathan Boulter who tragically lost his brave fight with brain cancer in May 2008, members of the i3-IRG with support by the British Society for Immunology, the School of Medicine, and Miltenyi Biotec have created an annual memorial lecture. This series will provide a forum for distinguished international speakers to come to Cardiff and present outstanding achievements and scientific advances. It will also give local researchers and students a unique opportunity for stimulating discussions with our invited guests.
The inaugural event took place on Wednesday, 7th October 2009. We were honoured to host Prof Casey Weaver from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA, who gave an excellent and very personal overview of the expanding knowledge of T cell plasticity and T cell lineages, from the establishment of the classical (and now outdated) Th1/Th2 paradigm in the 1980s to the emergence of Th17 cells to which Prof. Weaver has made seminal contributions. Given the current enormous interest in Th17 responses in all areas of immunology this lecture was given at the perfect moment and by a particularly appropriate speaker. On the following day, Prof. Weaver gave an outstanding summary of his most recent achievements in dissecting the developmental plasticity in the Th17 lineage and the implications for gene regulation in this process.
We especially appreciated the time Prof. Weaver dedicated to exchanging ideas with a number of PIs from the i3-IRG, and discussing PhD projects with a group of i3-IRG students. These meetings not only provided fresh thoughts for ongoing studies, they also resulted in new and promising collaborations between the i3-IRG and Prof. Weaver’s laboratory at the University of Alabama.
The visit was highlighted by several opportunities for informal chats with Prof. Weaver, be it during the well-attended wine reception at the end of the Memorial Lecture or at a very pleasant dinner at the Maenllwyd Inn in Rudry, which allowed us to appreciate him not only as a great immunologist but also as a very interesting, entertaining, humble and extremely likeable individual.
The Jonathan Boulter Memorial Lecture 2010 is scheduled for 20th October and will be given by Dr Federica Sallusto from Bellinzona, Switzerland, who undoubtedly will give us a very stimulating insight on human T cell plasticity in general and thus complement the topic set by Prof. Weaver - and most likely extend it by her views on Th22 cells, another emerging T cell population!