Meeting: International Travel for Students and Postdocs to attend the 13th Congress of the International Society for Developmental and Comparative Immunology; Spain, June 28, 2015

国际发育与比较免疫学学会（ISDCI）大会每三年在世界不同地区举行一次。这些会议规模相对较小，参加人数为260-400人，其中学生和博士后占35-40%。ISDCI会议洋溢着热情的团队合作，鼓励学生和博士后与该领域的领导者和其他有相似兴趣的科学家交谈。会议为年轻的研究人员提供了发起合作和寻求高级学位导师的机会，这加强了发育和比较免疫学领域。该奖项支持美国学生和博士后研究人员参加ISDCI第13届大会，展示他们的研究成果，并利用这些机会与其他比较免疫学家进行互动。旅行奖的获奖者将包括女性和来自代表性不足群体的个人。比较免疫学研究带来了重大的发现，这些发现增强了普通免疫学更广泛的领域，并在某些方面导致了方向性的变化。例如，在果蝇中发现了能够检测所有动植物病原体的蛋白质受体；目前用于分析基因功能和编辑或纠正基因的应用是基于对植物和圆虫的抗病原体反应以及细菌对病毒的适应性免疫反应的研究。这些方法可能会被添加到未来潜在治疗方法的武器库中，可能会纠正作为先天性异常基础的基因，或者从人类基因组中去除逆转录病毒，这一方法对治愈艾滋病毒可能很重要。ISDCI是唯一一个主要研究发展和/或比较性质的国际免疫学家协会；成员们研究广泛生物体的免疫功能。ISDCI在更大的免疫学领域填补了一个重要的空缺，并讨论了通常不包括在以生物医学免疫学为重点的会议中的主题，例如宿主-微生物相互作用以及植物、鱼类和海洋哺乳动物的免疫。第13届大会的目标是交流发展和比较免疫学领域的新思想和新成果，并为年轻成员提供展示他们的研究并与该领域的其他人互动的机会。

Congresses of the International Society for Developmental and Comparative Immunology (ISDCI) are held every three years in different parts of the world. These meetings are relatively small with 260-400 attendees, of which students and postdocs comprise 35-40%. The warm collegiality that pervades ISDCI meetings encourages students and postdocs to talk to the leaders in the field and to other scientists with similar interests. The meeting provides young researchers with opportunities to initiate collaborations and seek out mentors for advanced degrees, which strengthens the field of developmental and comparative immunology. This award supports travel of US students and postdoctoral researchers to attend the 13th Congress of ISDCI to present their research and to take advantage of these opportunities to interact with other comparative immunologists. Recipients of the travel awards will include women and individuals from underrepresented groups. Comparative immunology research has led to significant discoveries that have enhanced the broader field of general immunology, and in some ways resulted in directional changes. Examples include discovery in the fruit fly Drosophila of protein receptors that detect pathogens in all animals and plants; applications that are used today for analyzing gene function and for editing or correcting genes were based on research on anti-pathogen responses in plants and round worms and the adaptive immune responses of bacteria to viruses. These approaches may be added to the arsenal of potential therapeutics in the future, potentially to correct genes that are the basis of congenital abnormalities, or to excise retroviruses from human genomes, an approach that is potentially important to an HIV cure. ISDCI is the only international society of immunologists whose primary interests are developmental and/or comparative in nature; members investigate immune functions in a wide range of organisms. The ISDCI fills an important niche within the larger field of immunology, and addresses topics that are not generally included in meetings focused on biomedical immunology, such as host-microbe interactions, and immunity in plants, fishes and marine mammals. The goals of the 13th Congress are to communicate new ideas and results for the field of developmental and comparative immunology, and to provide opportunities for the young members to present their research and to interact with others in the field.