from january 16 to 17, 2025, the strategic seminar on "human immunity and disease prevention and control" of the medical science department of the natural science foundation of china was held in chongqing. the conference is sponsored by the medical science department of the natural science foundation of china, hosted by the first affiliated hospital of zhejiang university school of medicine, and co-organized by the jinfeng laboratory of chongqing. academician tian zhigang of the university of science and technology of china, academician wang fusheng of the general hospital of the people's liberation army, academician wu yuzhang of the army military medical university of the people's liberation army, and professor liang tingbo of zhejiang university jointly served as the chairman of the conference. academician zhang xuemin, member of the party leadership group and deputy director of the natural science foundation of china, and gao ruiping, secretary-general of the advisory committee of the natural science foundation of china, attended the meeting and delivered speeches. hong wei, deputy director of the department of medical sciences, presided over the opening ceremony.

in his speech, deputy director zhang xuemin pointed out that immunology is the fastest-growing and most dynamic discipline, especially the discovery of pd-1 immune checkpoints, which gives us hope for humans to overcome tumors. but even so, our understanding of immunity is still very limited. in addition to malignant tumors, organ fibrosis, lupus erythematosus, various autoimmune diseases, as well as infectious diseases such as hepatitis b are all related to immunity. on the other hand, due to its inherent complexity and individual differences, the immune system may lead to many limitations and deviations simply from an isolated perspective. therefore, considering the huge diversity of the immune system t and b lymphocytes as a complex system with group intelligence, comprehensive research through immunity decoding is becoming a new trend and new paradigm in the field of immunology.

in his speech, secretary-general gao ruiping said that the topic selection motion proposed by the national science foundation of china should be based on the positioning of the national key r&d plan and the responsibilities and missions of the national science foundation of china in the new era, reflecting strategic, basic and forward-looking, and paying attention to the difference from the existing layout of major national science and technology projects.

in his speech, academician tian zhigang emphasized the importance of the human immune evaluation system, immunity manipulation strategies, and new immunotherapy plans. he expressed his hope that the experts attending the meeting will summarize key scientific issues in this field through the conference and serve the topic selection motion of the national key r&d plan with high quality.

the conference focused on four topics, including "human immunity decoding", "immunity and disease", "new strategies for immunotherapy", and "new technologies and methods for immunity research". experts at the meeting suggested that based on large-scale population cohorts related to diseases, we should develop immune power-based representation methods and build a multi-dimensional immunity database; use big data and artificial intelligence and other technologies to carry out immunity function decoding, dynamic evolution laws and internal mechanism analysis; in-depth study of the core role of immune changes in the occurrence, development and outcome of diseases; carry out multi-dimensional intervention strategies and methods for immunity, and improve disease prevention and diagnosis and treatment by manipulating human immunity, and improve people's health level.

more than 40 experts from universities and research institutes across the country, as well as staff from relevant departments of the natural science foundation of china, including academician bian xiuwu of the army military medical university, academician zhan qimin of peking university, and other members of the national university of science and technology attended the meeting. (contributed by meng qingfeng, jiang xiaohua, fang dong, department of medical sciences)