On December 27, the Immunology Institute of Nankai University was inaugurated. Cao Xuetao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of Nankai University; Xu Jingjun, Executive Vice President of Nankai University; academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering such as Tian Zhigang, Shao Feng and Dong Chen, as well as experts in the field of immunology including Yao Zhi, Wu Yuzhang and Huang Bo attended the ceremony.

Cao Xuetao said that immunology has become the frontier discipline of life sciences and one of the supporting disciplines of modern medicine, and the COVID-19 pandemic, while bringing new challenges, has further highlighted its importance. He hopes that, with the support of the experts, the Institute will become a peak of scientific research and innovation, a highland of talents gathering, and a demonstration base for the transformation and application of scientific research achievements in the future, as well as building a career development platform for young scholars.

Xu Jingjun said that it is urgent and necessary to set up the Immunology Institute of Nankai University during the special period of fighting against COVID-19. He hopes to carry out joint research with experts and scholars in the field of immunology and make positive contributions to the development of immunology in China and even the world. 

The discipline development directions of the Institute are immunology basic research and clinical application research, systematic elaboration on the molecular regulation mechanism of the immune response, and the development of treatment for diseases. The Institute will focus on the research of infection immunity and inflammation, autoimmune disease and inflammation, and the remodeling and regulation of inflammatory tumor microenvironment.

For the academic reports session, experts and scholars exchanged views through academic reports respectively entitled "Synthetic immunotherapy and intelligent cell therapy", "Pyroptosis in antibacterial & antitumor immunity", "T cell exhaustion & immune dynamics thereof", "SARS-CoV-2's tender spot: Alveolar macrophage endosome", "Regulation of antibody response", "IL-27 signaling promotes adipocyte thermogenesis and energy expenditure", "Key novel mechanisms of autoimmune disease imbalance", "Discovery of new subsets of immune cells and its immune response regulation", "Tissue-specific FOXP3 Treg subtype and immunotherapy", "Neuroimmunology: the Paradise for Translational Research", "Hippo signaling in host antimicrobial defense", "Protective role of myeloid-derived suppressor cells in early life", "Breakthrough in CAR-T therapy for T- tumors", and "The Fate Decision of Th17 Cells", etc.

(Reported by Fu Kun and Photographed by Zong Qiqi and edited and translated by Nankai News Team)