Bridging the Gap Between Innate and Adaptive Immunity in the Lung: Summary of the Aspen Lung Conference 2022.

ABSTRACT

Although significant strides in the understanding of pulmonary immunology have been made, much work remains to be done to comprehensively explain coordinated immune responses in the lung. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic only served to highlight the inadequacy of current models of host-pathogen interactions and reinforced the need for current and future generations of immunologists to unravel complex biological questions. As part of that effort, the 64th Annual Thomas L. Petty Aspen Lung Conference was themed "Bridging the Gap Between Innate and Adaptive Immunity in the Lung" and featured exciting work from renowned immunologists. This report summarizes the proceedings of the 2022 Aspen Lung Conference, which was convened to discuss the roles played by innate and adaptive immunity in disease pathogenesis, evaluate the interface between the innate and adaptive immune responses, assess the role of adaptive immunity in the development of autoimmunity and autoimmune lung disease, discuss lessons learned from immunologic cancer treatments and approaches, and define new paradigms to harness the immune system to prevent and treat lung diseases.