Xiamen University (XMU) hosted the WEHI-XMU Joint Symposium from Oct 19 to 21, bringing together scholars from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Tsinghua University, and XMU to discuss immunity, cell death, and related mechanisms.
XMU's School of Medicine organized the symposium as part of its 30th-anniversary celebrations, with the Xiamen Society for Immunology as a co-host and the School of Life Sciences as a supporting organizer.
Professor Phil Darcy of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, together with Professors Lin Xin and Fu Yangxin of Tsinghua University, discussed the challenges and opportunities of CAR-T cell therapy, sharing new strategies to boost anti-tumor efficacy through cell engineering and immune modulation. Professors Chen Lanfen and Jie Zuliang of XMU presented their latest findings on the tumor microenvironment and anti-tumor immunity.
Professors James Vince, John Silke, and Maria Tanzer of WEHI, along with Professor Mao Kairui and Associate Professor Zhang Yingying of XMU, examined cell death from different perspectives, exploring how it influences disease progression, particularly in infectious and inflammatory diseases.
Short talks by young researchers covered endotoxic shock, Alzheimer's-related ferroptosis, neutrophil responses in bacterial sepsis, and T-cell regulation in influenza.
The symposium combined international exchange with frontier research in immunotherapy, infection, cell death, and tissue homeostasis, and laid the groundwork for future collaboration.
