30th Symposium: Petersberg, Germany 2014

Light Minutes of the 30th Symposium of the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum held in Petersberg, Germany in September 2014

By JOHN BIENENSTOCK

These mynutes (as pronounced by Alain de Weck, our founder and former President) were pieced together from memory and jottings in the printed program. The names have not been changed to protect the honor of those not named…

The meeting, very ably and distinctively organized by Marcus Maurer, Heidrun Behrendt, Thomas Bieber, and Johannes Ring, and of course Steve Galli, was held in Petersberg, Germany across the flowing Rhine from Bonn, the second official seat and second official residence of the President of Germany, the Chancellor of Germany, the Bundesrat, and the first official seat of six German federal ministries. It shares this position with Berlin, the official capital of Germany, because Konrad Adenauer, the first post-war Chancellor, said he was not prepared to travel to Frankfurt, the suggested capital of West Germany. Most of us were however prepared to travel to the lovely setting of the Steigenberger Hotel, formerly the Official Guest House of the first German government.

As always people came from far and wide to enjoy each other, share science and anecdotes and enjoy the pleasure and conviviality we have come to expect and anticipate. The CIA was founded 62 years ago and Geoffrey West in 1974 quoted from the ancient Persian:

“He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool – shun him
He who knows not and knows that he knows not is weak – help him
He who knows and knows not that he knows is asleep – wake him
But he who knows and knows that he knows is wise – follow him”

“There are known knowns. There are things that we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we don’t know we don’t know.”

Ooooh!!!!

When I was trying to construct these minutes from next to no notes, I read the above to my wife who has her own file of quotes and I quote from these: “Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?”

Moving right along…Susan and David McDonald came from Baltimore via Toronto to Munich because David, looking for the least expensive way, booked his travel online with an agent in India, who apparently is not familiar with the geography of North America… and so it goes. Martin Chapman was asked why he included the words “big data” in the title of his paper. He reasonably replied “Do you think this paper would have been accepted if I had used the word small?” Claudia Traidl-Hofman who was chair of the first session: “We start questions with the woman behind…” After a polite pause, Francesca Levi-Schaffer said: “I am also a woman behind…and would like to ask a question”. This is true, but occasionally Francesca is the woman in front as is evidenced by a quote of hers endorsed by Tom Platts-Mills: “In vivo veritas” and echoed by Tom later in response to an answer by Claudia Hui: “Unfortunately we have not studied this in mice.” Tom: “That is not unfortunate at all”. Carsten Schmidt-Weber responding to Barry Kay’s question on his anti-IL4 study: “What biological effects would you suggest, Barry?” Barry: “That’s your problem, Carsten, not mine”. Carsten’s polite and ineffable response: “Thank you, Barry.”

Gianni Marone introduced Steve Galli and his eminent Prausnitz Lecture with these memorable words: “Science has had many previous Gallis before this one: the first and most important being Galli leo”. Steve responded in his lecture with a video of a honey badger killing a puff viper, eating the head and anaphylaxing, becoming stuporose and then recovering. He also showed a picture of another poisonous snake, commenting on the fact that a woman screamed and left the room when he did it last. Many would assume that this is not the first time this has happened in response to one of his scientific talks. So don’t hold back anyone when Galli talks, let it all hang out.

Tom Platts-Mills informed us that the reason humans have fingers is because these have evolved to end in fingernails which enable us to pick off ticks. Cattle, moose and deer apparently do not and therefore have bad tick-borne diseases.

Dawn Newcombe emphasized that she had found another helpful difference to distinguish men and boys and it is TH17.

Kenji Izuhara distinguished himself by jogging to the Drachenfels castle and drank a beer on his way back in time to show a picture of the student who did the study he was talking about, asleep at the bench. Your students, Kenji, really have to work hard when they work with you without sleep.

Mitch Grayson, wishing to emulate his son’s appearance in the minutes of Jeju Island 2012 (no competition there, Mitch), took an original approach and blatant appeal to get himself into the minutes by wearing a tie on which was printed his key schematic powerpoint slide, thus becoming a living interactive slide--who needs the cloud when you have Grayson?

The extraordinary relaxing lecture was delightfully given by Professor Wilhelm Barthlott from the University of Bonn. We were introduced into the “secret of the sacred lotus--learning from biological surfaces” by a video of a woman going up to the reception desk whereon her dress falls down. It was an advertisement for the skin cream she used which makes her skin like the lotus leaf, smooth and nothing sticks. She apparently had to have velcro strips on her skin to attach her dress. Many minds boggled at the incredible diversity of nature, and some at the inadvertent effects of skin cream...

The boat trip was, as usual, amazing and unusual. It took no buses to get there since the boat was moored by the side of the road, no seasickness was possible and remarkably no one, sober or drunk,  fell overboard this time. We had a marvelous informal wine tasting at the Mohr winery operated by the same family for 4 generations and included an appropriate large gent dressed as Bacchus to introduce us to the bacchanalia that followed. Finally, the informal dinner on the other side of the Rhine included a very long walk to the hotel which was worth it. Many members missed the bus back which left early but were told the next bus was just around the corner which was found by accident 16 corners later. Nevertheless…

Lee Frick described how it used to be in his day in the lab. A former postdoc would take the rabbits after experiments and kill them with an overdose of intravenous cognac. He then would consign them to the cooking pot and they all dined magnificently.

We had a marvelous organ recital in the XIII^th Century Cologne Cathedral performed by Professor Bonig, the cathedral organist, suspended in the new organ, 20 meters from the ground, with an amazing range in the 2 organs and a total combined number of 8,000 organ pipes. After the performance, members who searched for bodily relief found toilets in the local Movenpick. Remarkably, these toilets had transparent glass cubicle doors, and again some minds boggled and others decided they didn’t need a washroom at that moment.

Bruce Beutler, one of our favorite Nobel prize winners, generously gave of his time and provided a brilliant Kallos Lecture with staggering examples of the power of genetic analysis and the most modern technology such as Ion Torrent for analysis of data. On September 16, 2014, his group had performed 1.35 million phenotypic assays on 31,778 mutations in 17,875 mice and was spending $100K a month on animal costs—a bit more than most of us spend except for Tom’s budget on his clinical trials which cost more than this.

The gala dinner may have surpassed all previous bests and combined entertainment and gaiety of every sort with excellent food and good company. We enjoyed an internationally famous Youth Orchestra playing Beethoven and an encore. Minutes after the soup course we discovered that the waiters were not what they seemed and Bettina Jensen, having volunteered to help one of them, discovered, as did the audience, that she had lost an important piece of her underwear only to have it turn up again in the dexterous waiter’s hands. Dinner was held with frequent interruptions. Pat Holt was requested to make an unanticipated speech whereon he sought refuge with his wine, under the table, until the danger was over. The lights were dimmed and we discovered that the lantern on a pole in the middle of the room was really for climbing and we witnessed an extraordinary combination of acrobatics, daring agility and humor. We finished with the introduction of the newest members, one of whom on being asked, was, unlike many of those present, able to recite accurately the birthdays of all her 6 children, to a round of heartfelt applause.

The CIA was minuted by West
His minutes were considered the best
We have tried very hard
To equal this bard
But may never succeed in this test