The Schedule
The Schedule
Day 1
All presentations will be held in the FitzHugh Auditorium, Cohen Quad, Exeter College.
Registration: 12:00 – 18:00
Opening remarks: Malcolm Sim (Oxford, host) 15:00 – 15:15
Session 1: Structure & function 15:15 – 17:00
Chair: Malcolm Sim
(1) 15:15 – 15:30 Beining Li, University of Oxford, UK. High-throughput discovery of novel peptide-ligands for KIR2DS4
(2) 15:30 – 15:45 Camilla Faoro, Monash University, Australia The molecular bases underpinning activating KIR2DS receptor reactivity towards peptide-HLA-C ligands
(3) 15:45 – 16:00 Philippa Saunders, University of Melbourne, Australia Allotypic variation in KIR2DL5 recognition of CD155
(4) 16:00 – 16:15 Jan Petersen, Monash University, Australia. Crystal structure of the KIR2DL5–CD155 complex reveals non overlapping binding site enabling bivalent CD155 engagement.
(5) 16:15 – 16:30 Sofia Celli, University of Colorado, USA. Granzyme H upregulation identifies educated NK cells
(6) 16:30 – 16:45 Jayajit Das, Nationwide Children's Hospital, USA. Protein Language Models Accurately Predict Polymorphic Peptide-Modulated NK cell receptor–HLA class I Interaction Strengths
Coffee/tea break: 16:45 – 17:30
Plenary Lecture: 'A brief history of KIR'
Dr. Eric Long (NIH) 17:30 – 18:30
Dinner: In Cohen Quad 18:30 – 20:30
Day 2
Thursday 16th April
Registration: 8:30 – 18:00
Session 2: Cancer 9:00 – 10:30
Chair:
(7) 9:00 – 9:15 Pilar Lanuza, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. Dual Blockade of KIR and NKG2A Receptors by tailored Antibodies with Improved Functional Properties
(8) 9:15 – 9:30 Markus Uhrberg, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. Dissecting the contribution of KIR and NKG2A receptors to antileukemic effector functions of CAR NK cells
(9) 9:30 – 9:45 Lutz Walter, Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Germany. Functional restoration of human KIR3DX1 allows targeting of KIR3DL2+ tumor cells
(10) 9:45 – 10:00 Katia Gagne, INSERM, FRANCE. KIR–HLA Polymorphisms in T-Replete Haplo-HSCT: The Missing Puzzle to Elevate Donor Matching
(11) 10:00 – 10:15 Christelle Retière, INSERM, FRANCE. Functional recovery of NK cells after T-cell replete haploidentical HSCT: delayed licensing and poor anti-AML activity
(12) 10:15 – 10:30 Malini Raghavan, University of Michigan, USA. Distinct assembly characteristics of HLA class I molecules and their implications for immune surveillance by NK cells
Coffee/tea break: 10:30 – 11:00
Session 3: KIR+ T cells 11:00 – 12:30
Chair:
(13) 11:00 – 11:15 – Zakia Djaoud, University of Ottawa, Canada. Killer-cell Immunoglobulin-like Receptors define a potent effector program in human gd T cells
(14) 11:15 – 11:30 Amelia Kopacz, University of Oxford, UK. Non-Vd2 gd+ T-cells express higher levels of KIRs than their CD8+ T-cell counterparts
(15) 11:30 – 11:45 Amandine Mathias, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Neuron-reactive KIR+ CD8+ T cells harbor a unique transcriptional program in anti-Ri autoimmune encephalitis
(16) 11:45 – 12:00 Andreas Kongsgaard, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark. KIR expression marks antigen-experienced CD8 T-cells with enhanced cytotoxic program
(17) 12:00 – 12:15 Janine Kemming, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark. Differential Regulation of KIR Expression on CD8+ T Cells in CMV Infection and Autoimmunity
(18) 12:15 -12:30 Laura Islas, University of Colorado, USA. Inhibitory KIR3DL3 competes for B7H7 ligation with activating TMIGD2, to regulate intestinal CD8 + and gd T cells
Lunch: In Cohen Quad 12:30 – 13:30
Session 4: Infectious diseases 13:30 – 15:00
Chair: Quirin Hammer
(19) 13:30 – 13:45 Sam Chamberlain, University of Oxford, UK. RIFINs displayed on malaria-infected erythrocytes bind KIR2DL1 and KIR2DS1
(20) 13:45 – 14:00 Nina Plückebaum, Hannover Medical School, Germany. The High Sequence Variability of Human Cytomegalovirus pUL9 Provides Strain-specific activation of Killer Cell Immunoglobulin-like Receptors and Modulation of NK Cell Activity
(21) 14:00 – 14:15 Anne Halenius, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany. Human cytomegalovirus promotes KIR2DL1 recognition despite strong HLA-C downregulation
(22) 14:15 – 14:30 Valérie Olivier, University hospital in Geneva, Switzerland. Microvascular inflammation is influenced by the KIR peripheral repertoire and CMV infection in kidney transplanted patients
(23) 14:30 – 14:45 Simon Kollnberger, Cardiff University School of Medicine, UK. Human cytomegalovirus encodes a hypervariable immunoevasin that binds killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors
(24) 14:45 – 15:00 Ceri Feilding, Cardiff University School of Medicine, UK. The hypervariable HCMV immunoevasin gpUL1 which impacts NK cell activity by targeting KIR displays recent and ongoing evolution
Coffee/tea break: 15:00 – 15:30
Session 5: Pregnancy 15:30 – 16:15
Chair: Tanusya Murali
(25) 15:30 – 15:45 Salim Khakoo, University of Southampton. Low levels of IRF4 in uterine natural killer cells provide a link between KIR2DS1 and recurrent pregnancy loss.
(26) 15:45 – 16:00 Andrew Sharkey, Cambridge University. Human uterine natural killer cells regulate differentiation of extravillous trophoblast early in pregnancy.
(27) 16:00 – 16:15 Sumati Rajagopalan, NIAID, USA. HLA-G Activates a Type I Interferon Response in Primary NK Cells Through Receptor KIR2DL4
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Keynote Lecture: 'Everything you need to know about the origins of dogs and cats and chickens'
Prof. Greger Larson (Oxford) 17:30 – 18:30
Networking event: Exeter College 19:00 - 21:30
Day 3
Registration: 8:30 – 12:00
Session 6: Next Gen Typing 9:30 – 10:30
Chair: Malcolm Sim
(28) 9:30 – 9:45 Qiandong Zeng, Labcorp, USA. KIR Allele Typing and Phasing with Long Reads and Bait Capture
(29) 9:30 – 9:45 Dan Geraghty, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Centre, USA. Technology solutions for immune loci - application to full allele typing of KIR genes and haplotype structures
(30) 9:45 – 10:00 Yomna Gohar, Uni. of Dusseldorf. KIR*BLOOM: Bounded-Likelihood Optimization of Observed Mixtures for copy number aware KIR genotyping
(31) 10:00 – 10:15 Bram Luiken, Gendx, The Netherlands. Introducing a complete multiplexed whole gene KIR typing strategy for ONT long read sequencing
(32) 10:15 – 10:30 James Robinson, Anthony Nolan. KIR database.
Coffee/tea break: 10:30 – 11:00
Session 7: Population studies and disease associations 11:00 – 12:30
Chair: Jill Hollenbach
(33) 11:00 – 11:15 Sudan Tao, Blood Center of Zhejiang Province, China. High-Resolution Genotyping of KIR and HLA in Diverse Chinese Populations Uncovers Distinct Polymorphism Patterns
(34) 11:15 – 11:30 Gabriela Sato Paes, São Paulo State University, Brazil. Copy number variation of KIR3DL2, KIR3DL3, and KIR2DL4 across global populations. Population-specific patterns of KIR3DL2 and KIR2DS4 diversity and their impact on
imputation accuracy
(35) 11:30 – 11:45 Ticiana Farias, University of North Carolina Charlotte, USA. KIR diversity in African populations characterized by long-read sequencing
(36) 11:45 – 12:00 Jacqueline Williams, University of California San Francisco, USA. KIR2DS4*001 and its complementary HLA ligands are associated with protection against Multiple Sclerosis
(37) 12:00 – 12:15 Bridget Penman, University of Oxford, UK Predicting the properties of pathogens driving balancing selection on KIR haplotypes
(38) 12:15 – 12:30 Ivan Wolf, University of North Carolina Charlotte, USA. Variants within the LRC and NKC are associated with breast cancer risk and survival
Lunch: In Cohen Quad 12:30 – 13:30
Session 8: Immunology, development and methods 13:30 – 15:00
Chair: Malcolm Sim
(39) 13:30 – 13:45 Benedetta Padoan, Leibniz Institute of Virologie, Germany. Identification of NK Cells Expressing Both KIR3DS1 and KIR3DL1 in Heterozygous KIR3DS1/KIR3DL1 Individuals With Consequences for Functionality
(40) 13:45 – 14:00 Noah Koenigs, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, USA. c-Jun N-Terminal Kinase is a Novel Suppressor of KIR Acquisition During Human Natural Killer Cell Development
(41) 14:00 – 14:15 Quirin Hammer, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. Antibody S22019F selectively recognizes KIR2DS1 and enables analysis of KIR2DS1⁺ NK cells and T cells
(42) 14:15 – 14:30 Tanusya Murali, University of Oxford, UK. Using peptide-exchange systems to interrogate peptide-specific KIR binding to HLA Class-I
Closing remarks: Malcolm Sim (Oxford, host) 14:30 – 15:00