International fish, shellfish immunology conference to include four keynote presentations
About 250 researchers and industry leaders from around the world are expected to attend the second International Conference of Fish & Shellfish Immunology June 26–30 in Portland, Maine.
The University of Maine Aquaculture Research Institute is hosting this year’s international conference at the Holiday Inn By the Bay on behalf of the International Society of Fish & Shellfish Immunology (ISFSI).
The conference aims to improve the health and welfare of wild and farmed aquatic animals in the United States and around the world by bringing together leaders in the field from universities, research institutions and the industry, according to Anne Langston, associate director of UMaine’s Aquaculture Research Institute (ARI), an international center for aquaculture research and development and home to the Sustainable Ecological Aquaculture Research Network (SEANET).
Four keynote speakers are scheduled to present throughout the conference:
- Monday, June 27: Chris Secombes of the Scottish Fish Immunology Research Centre at the University of Aberdeen, “What’s new in fish cytokine research?”
- Tuesday, June 28: Bassem Allam of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, “Bivalve immunity and response to infections: Are we looking at the right place?”
- Wednesday, June 29: Marta Gomez-Chiarri of the Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Department at the University of Rhode Island, “Novel expanded immune gene families in the Eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica.”
- Thursday, June 30: Jeff Yoder of the Department of Molecular Biomedical Sciences at North Carolina State University, “The astounding and confounding complexity of innate immune receptors within and between teleost species.”
Presentations will start at 9 a.m. in the Vermont/New Hampshire Room of the Holiday Inn by the Bay.
The conference also will include plenary lectures as well as oral and poster presentations covering a range of topics including immunology, molecular biology and microbiology.
Conference sponsors include ARI, Elsevier, ISFSI and FishVet Group. Conference organizers collaborated with UMaine Conference Services to plan the event.
Fish and Shellfish Immunology, the official journal of ISFSI published by Elsevier, has printed a special issue to accompany the conference.
In 2013, the conference was held in Spain and attracted more than 300 attendees. Although this is the second international conference of ISFSI, the group has been meeting for more than 25 years, according to the conference website.
More about the conference is available online or by contacting Langston at anne.langston@umit.maine.edu, 581.4397; or Tim Bowden at timothy.bowden@umit.maine.edu, 581.2772.