CSI 2026 Recap

KEYNOTE 

The 38th Annual Canadian Society for Immunology (CSI) Conference opened in Winnipeg, Manitoba with welcome remarks from conference chair Dr. Thomas Murooka, followed by the keynote address from Dr. Carla Rothlin (University of Minnesota), titled The Afterlife: Decoding the Response to Cell Death. Dr. Rothlin challenged the simple notion that the mode of cell death alone determines the downstream immune response. Instead, she emphasized the importance of contextual signals that can lead even the same broad category of cell death, such as apoptosis, to distinct outcomes including inflammation, renewal, removal, or resolution. 

VACCINE SYMPOSIUM 

The second day featured the CIHR–CSI Vaccine Symposium, bringing together scientific, public health, commercial, and community perspectives on vaccine development. The symposium keynote speaker, Dr. Natasha Crowcroft opened with a Canadian perspective on infectious disease and vaccine programs, followed by sessions on biological, population, and social determinants of vaccine responses. 

Session 2, chaired by Dr. Rae Yeung, focused on Why Vaccines Work Differently: Biological, Population, and Social Determinants, with talks from Drs. Matthew Miller, Manish Sadarangani, and Devon Greyson.  

Dr. Kai Wu from Moderna brought new perspective from the industry on how mRNA platforms can accelerate vaccine development for COVID-19, seasonal and pandemic influenza, mpox, and other infectious threats. 

The symposium also discussed how we can foster public trust, equity, and engagement. A community-based discussion moderated by Dr. Christine Chambers emphasized early patient engagement and partnerships among researchers, clinicians, policy makers, and communities. A later session, moderated by Dr. Jane Rylett, featuring Drs. Timothy Caulfield, Ève Dubé, and Scott Halperin, focussed on misinformation, vaccine hesitancy, communication, and equitable access. 

ANTIGEN RECEPTOR SIGNALING AND IMMUNE CELL FATE 

The first scientific symposium on April 28, chaired by Drs. Juan Carlos Zúñiga-Pflücker and Heather Melichar, focused on Antigen Receptor Signaling Strength: A Driving Force for Immune Cell Fate. The session explored how quantitative differences in antigen receptor and developmental signals can shape immune cell identity, function, and disease outcomes. 

Dr. Heather Melichar discussed how naïve T cells are not functionally equivalent before antigen encounter. Her talk highlighted CD5 as a surrogate marker of self-reactivity and showed that CD5-low and CD5-high naïve T cells can be biased towards different effector fates. She further discussed how thymic signals, including those occurring around β-selection, may imprint functional tendencies before mature T cells ever encounter foreign antigens.  

Dr. Juan Carlos Zúñiga-Pflücker then examined the role of Notch signaling in T cell receptor-driven clonal selection and differentiation. His presentation emphasized that stromal-cell-derived Notch signals provide spatial, temporal, and quantitative information during T cell development. Using inducible RBPJ-deficient models, his group found that Notch signaling contributes to effector CD8 T cell differentiation, TCR clonotype expansion, and viral control after LCMV Armstrong infection.  

Additional talks by Drs. Wan-Lin Lo, Janilyn Arsenio, and Grégoire Altan-Bonnet extended the theme of immune decision-making. Dr. Lo discussed TCR signaling and tolerance, while Dr. Arsenio presented work on early T cell responses in inflammatory disease, including sex-biased transcriptional programs in CD8 T cell exhaustion and T cell responses during polymicrobial sepsis. Dr. Altan-Bonnet brought in a systems-immunology perspective, employing neural-network-inspired models to study how T cells interpret antigen quality and quantity. Collectively, the symposium emphasized that immune cell fate is shaped by signal strength, timing, developmental history, and tissue context. 

SCIENTIFIC WORKSHOPS FROM EARLY INVESTIGATORS AND TRAINEES 

CSI 2026 also highlighted the breadth of research led by trainees and early-career investigators across Canada. The Tuesday afternoon workshops covered tumor immunology, host immunity at mucosal sites, and immune cell development, activation, and signaling, with trainees and early-career speakers presenting their work across these areas.  

The CIHR III and Early Investigator Session featured Drs. Amy Gillgrass, Joshua Koenig, and Giorgia Sulis. Dr. Gillgrass presented fascinating work using a unique next-generation humanized mouse model to study infectious diseases (i.e. HIV–TB co-infection), adenoviral TB vaccine efficacy, and cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Koenig talked about how memory CD4 T cells can hold IgE memory via de novo activation of naïve B cells upon recall. Dr. Sulis discussed the RoB-VE project, which aims to improve risk-of-bias assessment and reporting in vaccine effectiveness research. Her presentation emphasized that inconsistent bias assessment and reporting can limit interpretability of vaccine effectiveness evidence, and that more standardized, usable frameworks are needed.  

EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

The second scientific symposium focused on Immunological Insights and Global Strategies for Combatting Emerging Infectious Diseases, was chaired by Drs. Jason Kindrachuk and Alyson Kelvin. This session brought together perspectives ranging from influenza vaccine strain selection to germinal center biology, global surveillance, zoonotic influenza risk, and chronic viral disease. 

Dr. Kanta Subbarao discussed the challenges of developing vaccines against rapidly changing pathogens such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2. Her talk reviewed the impact of antigenic drift in influenza, the role of global surveillance networks in vaccine strain selection, and the difficulty of maintaining protection as pathogens evolve. Dr. Ali Ellebedy then described regulation of germinal center B cell responses to vaccination, including studies using fine-needle aspirates of draining lymph nodes to monitor human germinal center responses after vaccination. His work highlighted robust spike-specific germinal center B cell responses after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination and compared immune responses induced by mRNA and conventional influenza vaccines.  

Dr. Isaac Bogoch provided a global health perspective, emphasizing the value of human mobility data for infectious disease surveillance and response. His engaging talk illustrated how travel and mobility patterns can provide near-real-time information to support clinicians, public health planning, laboratory capacity, and outbreak preparedness. Dr. Stacey Schultz-Cherry discussed the risk of emerging influenza viruses, including H5N1, emphasizing the broad host range of influenza viruses and their capacity for rapid evolution through antigenic shift. Finally, Dr. Daniela Weiskopf presented work on virus-specific CD4+ T cells in chronic chikungunya virus disease, showing that individuals with chronic symptoms have a higher frequency of CHIKV-specific CD4+ T cells.  

AWARDS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

The meeting concluded with the Bernhard Cinader Award Lectureship by Dr. Charu Kaushic, titled Finding Meaning in Science: A Journey from Immunology to Women’s Health, Impact and Equity. Her lecture reflected the broad mission of immunology: to generate mechanistic insight while also addressing health equity, translational impact, and the human meaning of scientific work. 

The annual CSI meeting remains an important gathering point for the Canadian immunology community, bringing together established investigators, early-career researchers, trainees, clinicians, industry partners, and public health leaders. Congratulations to all award recipients, poster presenters, workshop speakers, organizers, and trainees who contributed to another successful conference. Special thanks are due to the organizing committee, sponsors, trainee engagement committee, and CSI staff for making the 38th Annual CSI Conference possible!