28th Symposium: Ischia, Italy 2010

Light Minutes of the 28th Symposium of the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum held in Ischia, Italy in May 2010

By STEPHEN J. GALLI

The 28th meeting of the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum, entitled: “Translational Science: From Basic to Clinical Immunology and Allergy”, was held from May 25-30, 2010, at the Angelo Rizzoli Conference Center on the island of Ischia, Italy, and was organized masterfully by Gianni Marone and Massimo Triggiani. 

We have had all sorts of challenges, excitement, and mishaps at prior CIA meetings, but this was the first one almost cancelled because of a volcano. This is supremely ironic, because the logo and program cover of the meeting featured an outline of nearby Mt. Vesuvius with a plume of volcanic smoke, and this was designed long before the eruption of the Icelandic volcano with the unpronounceable name. As all who attended our meeting will recall, the air traffic disruption caused by that volcano raised a serious question about whether our meeting should be cancelled (which would have been an unwelcome “first” for our group). Ultimately, we had a conference call, rolled the dice, said “no mere volcano will stop a meeting of the CIA”, and decided to convene – in open defiance of the tectonic affront. It is a tribute to the resourcefulness, sense of adventure, and, it must be said, risk-taking behavior of our members that, in the end, we had virtually no cancellations, although some members from Scandinavia did have their travel severely impacted.

And what a meeting it was. New high records were set for numbers of scientific abstracts (216), scientific participants (276) and total attendance (361). The social program and boat ride were excellent (the boat ride included stops for lunch and shopping), and the weather on Ischia was delightful. Despite the record high attendance at the meeting as a whole, some sessions had low attendance because of the allure of the optional excursions, which included opportunities to visit Pompeii (for a reminder about how bad volcanic eruptions can be) and Capri (the site of another CIA meeting which Gianni Marone also helped to organize). I missed the trip to Capri but an informant told me there was an angry confrontation between some attendees and the tour organizers because the tour did not include a visit to the Blue Grotto. There was good news and bad news about this altercation: the police were not called (that was the good news), but the trip to the Grotto did not occur.

But we must recall that we have these meetings primarily to discuss science, and the scientific program was top notch, with the usual collegial mixture of excellent and in some cases late-breaking science, insightful discussions, and funny remarks. Here is a sampling:

Steve Holgate opened the first session by asking that the music be turned off. Those in control of that kept playing again and again the old favorite “Me and Mrs. Jones”, and it had a way of recurring loudly throughout the meeting. Steve also asked that all speakers mind their allotted time, even though he commented: “We are in Italy and sometimes things slip here.”

Donata Vercelli opened her presentation with the comment: “Let me start with a deliberately confusing slide.” This slide depicted the results of 658 published GWAS studies pertaining to asthma and other diseases. Looking over that slide was enough to make one think that “GWAS” stands for “Gee, Why even do such Awful Studies.” This slide must be a favorite among geneticists, because later in the same session Debby Meyers showed it again!

Adnan Custovic gave one of his usual animated, dramatic and data-packed presentations entitled: “Beyond atopy: Multiple patterns of sensitization in relation to asthma in a birth cohort study.” The presentation led Rob Aalberse to say to Adnan: “you were born 100 years too late!” And then Rob asked Adnan to name exactly what he found that is new. Gene Bleeker commented that Adnan was “like a Southern preacher” (I think he meant Southern USA, not Southern Italy). I describe these interactions here to provide, for the new members, specific examples of the courtesy, deference, and collegiality our members exhibit to each other in our scientific discussions. 

In thanking the members of his group for their hard work, David Proud defined a “Professor” as a one who no longer actually goes into his or her lab. I guess then that a “Distinguished Professor” could be defined as one so senior and accomplished that she or he can’t even find their lab.

Why he did the following calculation I can’t say, but Dean Metcalfe informed us that, if they were aggregated, all of the mast cells of the average person would be about the size of the spleen. I commented that my mast cells taken together would be the size of my liver.

 Ehud Razin announced that although his talk was placed in a session on eosinophils, he would not talk about them. However, he made a wonderful offer to his audience when he showed a summary slide a few minutes into his talk and asked if he should stop there. Again, the group showed its usual courtesy and several colleagues shouted “yes”.

Hans-Uwe Simon described his fascinating data showing that one of the ways eosinophils kill bacteria is by extruding their mitochondrial DNA. This certainly is a kind of poetic justice, since mitochondria are derived from microbes that long ago set up housekeeping within nucleated cells. 

After Carsten Schmidt-Weber’s presentation on his exciting work on Th22 cells, Lanny Rosenwasser remarked: “It’s nice to hear about T cells, because yesterday I thought the CIA had been hijacked by mast cells.” Carsten responded generously, and truthfully, saying: “Mast cells are important too!”

Alberto Montovani gave an excellent Paul Kallos Memorial Lecture, entitled: “Inflammation, the seventh hallmark of cancer”. While discussing his studies of decoy receptors for chemoattractants, receptors which limit the biological activity of these molecules by binding them but then not responding to them, he played in the background the old hit song “The sound of silence”. Alberto declared that he is a fan of the work of Simon and Garfunkle (but we already had guessed that). 

The theme of science and music was taken up again in earnest in the superb “Relaxing Lecture” presentation by Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Ernst Th. Rietshel, entitled: “Deadly germs and immortal music”. Blending insightful narrative with recordings of the music of the composers he profiled, Ernst briefly described the lives and illnesses of 8 notable composers who died of sepsis, including Mahler, who returned from New York to Europe in order to consult with E. Metchnikoff about his illness; Mahler never did see Metchnikoff, and his illness proved fatal. Ernst asked at the end of his presentation: “Why do we think that music is so beautiful and moving? Do we have receptors for music – what are the antennae?” 

According to CIA tradition, the Carl-Prausnitz lecture was given by the outgoing President of the Collegium, Gianni Marone. Gianni’s lecture, entitled: “Mast cells and basophils in angiogenesis: Bridging the gap between inflammation and tumors”, was a superb presentation. In addition to describing his group’s fundamental contributions to this important area of research, Gianni described his own introduction to the science of allergy under the warm mentorship of another Past President of the Collegium, Larry Lichtenstein. In addition to crediting Larry with exceptional qualities as a mentor, Gianni noted that Larry also provided him with material support in the form of (and I quote) “a very modest salary”.

More funny remarks:

Martin Chapman announced that he heard that Vesuvius will erupt soon, but “I hope you all will be safe until the end of the meeting”.

Hirohisa Saito provided the website at which one can freely access his microarray data, and commented: “You can really use it; it is not written in Japanese English.’

Larry Rosenwasser noted: “Whining about being an underdog is not a winning strategy.” This seems like good advice, Larry, but I forgot why you provided it, and to whom – so we will leave that out of the minutes.

Hirohito Kita noticed at the beginning of his talk that the wrong presentation was on the screen. He asked for his but didn’t get it until Francesca Levi-Schaffer asked in Italian. Hirohito said he thought about asking for it in Japanese but decided that probably wouldn’t work.

Barry Kay is always one to take the moderator’s prerogative. In his session he stated: “There is only time for one question and it is from me.”

In deferring a question to Cezmi Akdis, Reto Crameri said: “I need to ask Cezmi, a true molecular biologist never touches cells.”

Before beginning the last talk of our meeting, Jean-Marie Saint-Remy said: “Thank you all for staying, I know you aren’t the last speaker.”

Our meeting in Ischia was a great success scientifically, set a high water mark for overall attendance, and provided many delightful opportunities for informal interactions in interesting and beautiful places: all of these being the ingredients of an outstanding meeting of the Collegium. And who will forget wondering until nearly the last minute whether the meeting would happen or be cancelled on account of a volcanic eruption?

Accordingly, please join me now in expressing our deep thanks to the people who offered us the privilege of being at the 28th CIA meeting, our gracious Symposium Organizers, Gianni Marone and Massimo Triggiani, our EDI representatives, Joan Gieger and Katie Vande Zande, and all those members, invited scientists, accompanying persons and generous sponsors in industry who made our gathering in Ischia scientifically enlightening and socially delightful.