Keystone Symposia - Innate Immunity: Diversity in Host Defense and Disease

Kate Schroder, along with Jonathan C. Kagan and Peter Broz organisers of the 2026 Keystone Symposia on Innate Immunity: Diversity in host defense and disease. This meeting will be held on 22nd to 25th of March 2026 in Fairmont Banff Spings, in gorgeous Banff, Canada.   

Important Deadlines

• Registration open now!
• Scholarship Deadline: November 20, 2025
• Short Talk Abstract Deadline: November 20, 2025
• Early Registration Deadline: January 21, 2026
• Poster Abstract Deadline: February 26, 2026

Meeting Summary

The innate immune system detects disruptions in physiology—such as infection, tissue injury, and metabolic stress—and coordinates responses to restore balance. This requires a wide range of cells, receptors, and effector pathways that sense danger, initiate inflammation, and promote healing. While typically protective, dysregulated innate immune responses can lead to infection or pathology. Increasingly, maladaptive innate immunity is recognized as a key contributor to diseases linked to lifestyle and aging, including metabolic syndrome and neurodegeneration. 

This conference will bring together multidisciplinary perspectives on innate immunity, covering the fundamental science of innate immune mechanisms and the integration of immune diversity, including recent advances in innate immune danger-sensing and effector mechanisms across diverse cell types including macrophages, dendritic cells and epithelial barrier cells. 

As a joint meeting with the Keystone Aging Symposium, this meeting will allow valuable exchange and world-leading expertise in the fields of Aging and Inflammation, to discuss how inflammatory responses shape healthy versus unhealthy aging, as well as industry approaches and emerging therapeutic opportunities for targeting inflammatory mechanisms in diseases associated with aging.