Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Funding is requested for the symposium, "The Microbiome and Chronic Disease," to be presented at the 28th annual meeting of the Canadian Society for Immunology (CSI), to be held Winnipeg on June 5, 2015. This research area has relevance to many diseases, from chronic infection to autoimmunity to cancer. This major symposium will be co-chaired by Jayne Danska from Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto and Michael Surrette from McMaster University. The major symposium will be complemented by a Keynote address by Michel Nussenzweig from Rockefeller University as well as by 2 other major symposia, 4 workshops and 2 poster sessions. The CSI annual meeting has a long-standing tradition of bringing together trainees and faculty in the Immunology community with internationally recognized keynote and symposium speakers. Besides the exciting and top quality scientific presentations, the meeting, which will attract about 300 people, is an excellent venue for trainees to present their research findings. It is also a place where students, postdoctoral fellows, new investigators and their established colleagues can network and raise their profile nationally. The meeting is small enough to promote discussion and indeed the Keynote and symposium speakers are requested to attend the entire meeting to allow them to interact with attendees. Trainees are supported through a series of travel awards for students and fellows, as well as poster prizes for graduate students. Poster prizes ensure that all graduate students have their posters viewed by Faculty judges. We also involve new investigators in poster judging or as workshop chairs, to increase their engagement with the Immunology community. New this year will be the increased use of social media to engage CSI members in the program, a "Career Development and Readiness" session for trainees and "one minute, one slide presentations" to allow each student a chance to pitch their research topic prior to poster session.