American Gastroenterological Association - Advancing the Science and Practice of Gastroenterology

Immunology, Microbiology & IBD

Dear Member of the Immunology, Microbiology & Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Section and interested others:

We thank you for attending the 41st annual DDW® in New Orleans, LA and making it a scientifically relevant and exciting meeting! If you have specific feedback regarding speakers sponsored by the Immunology, Microbiology & Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IMIBD) Section at DDW, please share your thoughts with us. We will do our best to consider your comments and concerns as we plan our program for next DDW 2011 in Chicago.

One of our section's abstracts "The Crohn's Disease protective SNP rs11209026 allele "A" mediates alternative splicing in human IL23R transcription." was presented at the successful AGA Institute Basic Science Plenary Session.

We would like to welcome the newly elected Immunology, Microbiology & Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Section Vice-Chair, Maria T. Abreu, MD. And the newly elected Nominating Committee Members: David T. Rubin, MD, AGAF; Uma Mahadevan , MD; Jean Frederick Colombel, MD; and Gert Van Assche, MD, PhD. We would also like to thank R. Balfour Sartor, MD for his invaluable service as Chair of the Immunology, Microbiology & Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Section from 2008-2010. Thank you to all those who participated in the election and voted.

This year the IMIBD section accepted the majority of the abstracts submitted. The accepted abstracts were designated as oral or poster presentations and of distinction based on their ranking by our dedicated abstract reviewers.

IMIBD sponsored Clinical, Translational, and Research Symposia, and abstract based Research and Topic Fora.

Each June, IMIBD section descriptors are reviewed to optimize scientific relevance and minimize overlapping topics with other AGA Institute Sections and to encourage both clinical research and basic science abstract submissions. The current list of abstract descriptors is as follows. (IMIBD descriptors may change as we go forward to DDW 2011.) We would like to thank our abstract review Committee Chairs and members for generously sharing their expertise and time in order to ensure that the most novel and relevant developments in Immunology, Microbiology & Inflammatory Bowel Diseases were shared at DDW.

Section leaders will review committee membership this summer for abstract review committees to confirm the final composition for DDW 2011 committees.

IMIBD section members interested in serving in this capacity are encouraged to contact us and volunteer to review abstracts.

Please submit your invaluable ideas about the topics and invited speakers that you would like to hear at next year's DDW. The more specific you can be, the better (title, individual talks, speakers, learning objectives). Please forward your suggestions to John Whiton, AGA Institute by July 6, 2010.

Members interested in participating in the various activities of the Section should contact us at the addresses below. We are particularly interested in increasing participation by junior investigators/clinicians and international members at this time.

If you are interested in serving as a reviewer for any of our abstract descriptors, please let us know. Please cite the abstract descriptor for which you would be interested in reviewing. Please recommend any new descriptors for abstracts.

Thank you for your continuing strong support of the Immunology, Microbiology & Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Section.

Sincerely,

Bruce E. Sands, MD, MS, AGAF
Chair, IMIBD Section, AGA Institute Council

Maria T. Abreu, MD
Vice-Chair, IMIBD Section, AGA Institute Council