DC2026 PROGRAM
18th International Symposium on Dendritic Cells
11β14 October 2026 Β· Kona Kai Resort, San Diego Β· All times in Pacific Standard Time (PST)
This program is subject to change. Please check back for updates.
Sunday, 11 October
Opening day Β· Registration, Inaugural Keynote & Plenary 1
1:00 PM β 7:00 PM
Registration Open
3:00 PM β 3:30 PM
Welcome Remarks
3:30 PM β 4:30 PM
Inaugural Keynote Speaker
Keynote
3:30 PM
Chromatin-mediated control of dendritic cell function
Boris Reizis
4:30 PM β 5:00 PM
Coffee/Tea Break & Networking
5:00 PM β 7:00 PM
Plenary 1: DC Development, Lineage Specification & Transcriptional Control
Plenary
5:00 PM
Mechanism of WDFY4-dependent cross-presentation in cDC1
Kenneth Murphy
5:25 PM
Blurring the Line: A Hybrid Mononuclear Phagocyte Population Across Tissues
Florent Ginhoux
5:50 PM
The transcription factor regulating tumor-associated macrophages in pancreatic cancer
Tomohiko Tamura
6:15 PM
Promoter-dependent IRF8 induction governs subset-specific cDC2 reprogramming during infection with intracellular pathogens
Daisuke Kurotaki
6:30 PM
Infection-specific regulation of cDC2poiesis shapes dendritic cell subset responses
Kyle T. Cunningham
7:00 PM β 8:30 PM
Welcome Reception
Monday, 12 October
Plenary 2 & 3 Β· Parallel Symposia A & B Β· Ralph Steinman Legacy Symposium
7:00 AM β 7:00 PM
Registration Open
8:00 AM β 10:00 AM
Plenary 2: DC Functional Heterogeneity: Subsets, Identity & Function
Plenary
8:00 AM
Surveillance of intestinal antigens by functionally diverse antigen-presenting cells
Dan Littman
8:25 AM
Thetis cells: Defining the Ontogeny and Function of a Novel APC Lineage
Chrysothemis Brown
8:50 AM
Rethinking Immaturity: Signals Shaping Dendritic Cell Function in Early Life
Barbara Schraml
9:15 AM
Epigenetic Heterogeneity in Dendritic Cell Subsets Underlies Immune Response Variation
Mya Gough
9:20 AM
Thymic myeloid cell heterogeneity reveals a novel population of perivascular transitional dendritic cells with antigen sampling capacity
Matous Voboril
9:25 AM
Defining the factors governing intratumoral cDC1-CD8 T cell clusters
Maria Parra Reyes
10:00 AM β 10:30 AM
Coffee/Tea Break & Networking
10:30 AM β 12:30 PM
Plenary 3: Tissue Surveillance, Migration & Immune Coordination
Plenary
10:30 AM
Pathways of homeostatic dendritic cell maturation
Sophie Janssens
10:55 AM
Environment Patrolling by colonic Dendritic Cells
Ana-Maria Lennon-Dumenil
11:20 AM
Title coming soon
Shannon Turley
11:45 AM
Neuronal control of dendritic cell migration drives sex-biased skin immunity
Konrad KnΓΆpper
12:00 PM
Influence of cancer cell mechanical properties on dendritic cell sentinel function
Yazmina Quintana Perez
12:05 PM
Macrophage nibbling without killing: a novel endosomal route for CD8 T cell priming
Amy C Fan
12:10 PM
Chemokine-Driven Spatial Niches Regulate Distinct APC-T cell Neighbourhoods within the Human Lymph Node
Marcus Ooi
12:30 PM β 2:30 PM
Lunch & Poster Session 1
2:30 PM β 4:00 PM
Parallel Symposium A: DC Biology, Technologies & Therapeutic Opportunities
Parallel A
2:30 PM
The role of plasmacytoid dendritic cells in anti-viral immunity and in homeostasis
Elena Tomasello
2:55 PM
Using mRNA-LNP technology to manipulate conventional dendritic cell biology
Justine Mintern
3:10 PM
The tumor-sentinel lymph node immuno-migratome reveals CCR7βΊ dendritic cells drive response to sequenced immunoradiotherapy
Robert Saddawi-Konefka
3:25 PM
Fine-Tuned Help: Orchestrating Dendritic Cell-T Cell Crosstalk in Antitumor Immunity
Eynav Klechevsky
3:40 PM
Single-cell spatial transcriptomics of fixed, paraffin-embedded biopsies links dendritic cell-enriched gut-associated lymphoid aggregates to an archetype of vedolizumab non-response
Alexis J Combes
3:45 PM
Revisiting Dendritic Cells in Autoimmunity
Juan Villar Vesga
3:50 PM
Large Scale Production of Human Conventional Type I Dendritic Cells for Cancer Immunotherapy
Sreekumar Balan
2:30 PM β 4:00 PM
Parallel Symposium B: DC Metabolism & Cellular Programming of Function & Fate
Parallel B
2:30 PM
Title coming soon
David Sancho
2:55 PM
Conventional dendritic cells exhibit tissue-specific characteristics that are regulated by mitochondrial metabolism
Stefanie K Wculek
3:10 PM
O-GlcNAcylation regulates dendritic cell transcriptional stability
Jose A Villadangos
3:25 PM
IL-21 as a central driver of immunosenescence: linking pulmonary dysfunction and neurodegeneration
Anshu Agrawal
3:40 PM
Dying cell-derived polyamines modulate dendritic cell phagocytosis and adaptive priming
Chang Y Moon
3:45 PM
Dendritic cell metabolic reprogramming of O-GlcNAcylation shapes type 2 immunity
Jose Javier Fernandez
3:50 PM
Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Inhibition Activates Mito-calcium/mtROS/IL-12 Axis in Dendritic Cells to Promote Tumor Suppression
Mridula Prakash Menon
4:30 PM β 5:00 PM
Coffee/Tea Break & Networking
5:00 PM β 7:00 PM
Ralph Steinman Legacy Symposium: Foundational Discoveries that Shaped the Field
Legacy Symposium
5:00 PM
Title coming soon
Jacques Banchereau
5:25 PM
Title coming soon
Ira Mellman
5:50 PM
Transcription factor Etv3 controls the tolerogenic function of dendritic cells
Nicholas M Adams
7:00 PM β 11:00 PM
Dinner on Your Own
Tuesday, 13 October
Plenary 4 & 5 Β· Parallel Symposia C & D Β· Trainee Session Β· Conference Dinner
7:00 AM β 5:30 PM
Registration Open
8:00 AM β 10:00 AM
Plenary 4: DCs in Skin Immunity: Function, Communication & Adaptation
Plenary
8:00 AM
What Makes a Dendritic Cell? Lessons from Langerhans Cells
Clare Bennett
8:25 AM
Commensal-DC interactions reinforce early life tolerance at the skin barrier
Tiffany Scharschmidt
8:50 AM
Title coming soon
Laura Mackay
9:15 AM
Sequential priming by distinct dendritic cell subsets shapes effector CD4 T cell fate
Yosuke Kumamoto
9:30 AM
Distinct dendritic cell subsets drive sequential T cell priming phases
Enrico Dotta
9:35 AM
Langerhans cells fine-tune axonal guidance of nociceptor neurons in health and disease
Yonatan Ganor
9:40 AM
Characterization of type-2 dendritic cell populations in skin
Olivier Lamiable
10:00 AM β 10:30 AM
Coffee/Tea Break & Networking
10:30 AM β 12:30 PM
Plenary 5: DCs in Mucosal Immunity, Homeostasis & Host Defense
Plenary
10:30 AM
Title coming soon
William Agace
10:55 AM
Distinct antigen-presenting cells instruct divergent microbiota-specific T cell fates in the intestinal immune system
Daniel Mucida
11:20 AM
Title coming soon
Marco Colonna
11:45 AM
Dysbiosis-induced expansion of AXL-positive inflammatory type 3 dendritic cells triggers pre-clinical autoimmunity
Roxane Tussiwand
12:00 PM
STAT1 signalling shapes the function of type 2 conventional dendritic cells in lungs of weanling mice
Kaushikk Ravi Rengarajan
12:05 PM
RORΞ³t+ Dendritic Cells are a distinct lymphoid-derived lineage
Patrick Fernandes Rodrigues
12:10 PM
GM-CSF and specific type 2 cytokines induce CD103+ and CD301b+ cell states in cDC1s and cDC2s
Diana Dudziak
12:30 PM β 2:30 PM
Lunch & Poster Session 2
2:30 PM β 4:30 PM
Parallel Symposium C: DCs in Infection & Host Defense
Parallel C
2:30 PM
Cellular Stress Meets Immunity: IRE1-Dependent Programming of Dendritic Cell Function
Fabiola Osorio
2:55 PM
Plasmacytoid dendritic cell adaptations upon viral infection: heterogeneity, functional loss and fate conversion
Carolina Chiale
3:10 PM
Dendritic Cell Diversity During Blood Stage of Murine Malaria
Fernando B Sulczewski
3:25 PM
Defining the role of human anogenital antigen-presenting cells in HIV transmission
Andrew N Harman
3:40 PM
Inflammatory signals during viral infection and sepsis impact dendritic cell development
Regine J. Dress
3:45 PM
Deciphering the mechanisms underlying human plasmacytoid dendritic cell function and exhaustion
Dina Zangwill
3:50 PM
Functional heterogeneity of splenic DC2 subsets during acute LCMV infection driven by subset identity
Dimitrios Starfas
2:30 PM β 4:30 PM
Parallel Symposium D: DCs in Tolerance, Allergy, Autoimmunity & Chronic Inflammation
Parallel D
2:30 PM
Signaling through erythropoietin receptors on cDC1s promotes immune tolerance
Edgar Engleman
2:55 PM
Pleiotropic IL-10 can drive opposite effects in dendritic cells following MHC-II restricted, antigen-specific tolerogenic immunotherapy
Rebecca Leylek
3:10 PM
SIRPΞ± regulates homeostatic maturation of Notch2-dependent cDC2 and development of autoimmunity
Yasuyuki Saito
3:25 PM
Dissecting IL-10 signaling in myeloid antigen-presenting cells during colorectal tumor development
BjΓΆrn E. Clausen
3:40 PM
Oxidized mitochondrial DNA drives pDC-dependent Tfh differentiation in autoimmunity
Hongxu Xian
3:45 PM
Spatially organised IFNΞ³-instructed dendritic cell niches sustain human chronic inflammation
Andreas Schlitzer
3:50 PM
Reprogramming suppression: CD40-activated dendritic cells drive Treg-to-effector conversion
Vivien I Maltez
4:30 PM β 5:30 PM
Coffee & Trainee Session (Meet the Editor)
5:30 PM β 7:00 PM
Free Afternoon
7:00 PM β 10:30 PM
End of Conference Networking Dinner
Wednesday, 14 October
Plenary 6 & 7 Β· Translational Roundtable Β· Closing Keynote & Awards
7:00 AM β 4:00 PM
Registration Open
8:00 AM β 10:00 AM
Plenary 6: DCs in Cancer Immunity & Therapy
Plenary
8:00 AM
Title coming soon
Miriam Merad
8:25 AM
CCR7+ activated dendritic cells: defining the state that drives cancer immunity
Santiago Zelenay
8:50 AM
Title coming soon
Max Krummel
9:15 AM
Dissecting hierarchical dendritic cellβT cell interactions in tumour immunity using in vivo enzymatic labelling
Aleksey Chudnovskiy
9:30 AM
Context-Dependent DC2 States in Human Cancer
Kristen Radford
9:45 AM
Regulation of anti-cancer immunity by a natural killer cell β dendritic cell innate immune axis
Kevin C Barry
10:00 AM β 10:30 AM
Coffee/Tea Break & Networking
10:30 AM β 12:30 PM
Plenary 7: Translating DC Biology into Therapies: Vaccines & Beyond
Plenary
10:30 AM
Title coming soon
Karolina Palucka
10:55 AM
Title coming soon
Shalin Naik
11:20 AM
Inducing lymphoid niches across cancers by tumor-to-dendritic cell reprogramming
Filipe Pereira
11:45 AM
Tim-3βTargeted Vaccines Overcome Tumor Immunosuppression and Reduce cDC1 Dependence to Elicit Potent Anti-Tumor Immunity
Aimin Jiang
12:00 PM
Spatiotemporal Coordination of NK Cells and CTLs Drives Remodeling of Poorly T CellβInfiltrated Tumor Microenvironments
Shin-ichiro Fujii
12:15 PM
CAR-DC1: A novel next-generation dendritic cell therapy for targeting solid tumours
Shengbo Zhang
12:30 PM β 1:30 PM
Lunch
1:30 PM β 2:30 PM
Translational Roundtable: From DC Biology to Therapeutics
Roundtable
1:30 PM
Panel discussion: Bridging fundamental dendritic cell biology to clinical therapeutic application
Panellists TBA
2:30 PM β 3:30 PM
Closing Keynote
Keynote
2:30 PM
Title coming soon
Virginia Pascual
3:30 PM β 4:00 PM
Awards & Closing Ceremony