Report on the 34th annual meeting of the Japanese Association for Developmental and Comparative Immunology (JADCI), September 10-12, 2023, Ito Campus in Kyushu University (Local Organizer: Miki Nakao, Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University. Local Secretary-Treasurers: Tomonori Somamoto and Takahiro Nagasawa, Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University)

The 34th annual meeting of the JADCI was held on September 10-12, 2023. Forty eight scientists including graduate and undergraduate students attended this meeting to discuss the host defense mechanisms of invertebrates and vertebrates. The meeting featured a special lecture, an educational lecture and a symposium. Additionally, there were 19 general oral presentations, followed by the active discussion.

Special lecture: Ryusuke Fujita (Laboratory of Sanitary Entomology, Kyushu University) Divergency of insect-derived viruses.

Educational lecture: Shun-ichiro Kawabata (Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Kyushu University) Molecular mechanism of the serine protease cascade triggered by LPS.

Symposium: “A new era in complement researches: beyond host defences”

S-1. Multifaceted roles of Tecrem, a CD46-like complement regulatory factor, in teleost. (Miki Nakao, Kyushu University)
S-2. Unexpected intracellular complement activities: evolutionary considerations. (Claudia Kemper, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HHLBI), National Institutes of Health)
S-3. Interaction of complement system, coagulation system, and platelet. (Toshiyuki Miyata, National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center/Osaka Institute of Technology)
S-4. Activation mechanism of the lectin complement pathway and its involvement in inflammatory diseases. (Takeshi Machida, Fukushima Medical University)S-5. Complement abnormalities and diseases. (Norimitsu Inoue, Wakayama Medical University)

General presentations:
Nineteen oral presentations involved in the host defenses of arthropods, echinoderms, urochordata, fish, amphibians, and mammals were made over the 2 days.

The winner of the ‘Furuta Young Investigator Award’ was Mr. Nozomu Totsuka at Keio University. He was awarded this prize for his work entitled ‘Epithelial Conduction of Ca2+ and distribution changes of non-self-test cells and self-tunic cells during Ciona metamorphosis.’