Letter from the Editor

This year’s thematic is the 12th of the Immunological Investigations’ thematic issues, and is entitled, “Immunotherapy”. This issue was suggested by Dr. Daniel Amsterdam, and the idea was agreed upon by the editorial board last year. The articles in this issue include “Immunotherapeutic Approaches for the Control and Eradication of HIV” by Daniel Amsterdam; “Immunotherapy for Infectious Diseases: Past, Present, and Future” by Akshay Manohar, Jasmine Ahuja, and John K. Crane; “Immunotherapy of Fungal Infections” by Kausik Datta and Mawieh Hamad; “Immunotherapeutic Biologic Agents in Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Diseases” by Barbara E. Ostrov; “An Overview of Organ-Specific Autoimmune Diseases Including Immunotherapy” by Lucy D. Mastrandrea; and “Active Immunotherapy of Cancer” by Thinle Chodon, Richard C. Koya, and Kunle Odunsi.

This issue topic was chosen because of the increase in use of immunotherapy for a wide range of diseases and the increase in the application of more innovative methods to transfer or create a response. Since 2013, 20 articles have been published in Immunological Investigations concerning immunotherapy. Nine of these were concerning infectious disease immunotherapy (Feng et al., 2015; Inn et al., 2014; Jung et al., 2014; Li et al., 2012; Long et al., 2013; Lu et al., 2015; Shahabi et al., 2014; Tabatabaeizadeh et al., 2015; Xu et al. 2013), six were concerning immunotherapy of cancer (Erfani et al., 2012; Kim et al., 2014; Liao et al., 2014; Son et al., 2013, 2014, 2015), two were concerning autoimmunity (Habibagahi et al., 2013; Pesmatzoglou et al., 2013), three were concerning general adjuvant or dendritic cell effects (de Azevedo et al., 2013; Huemer et al., 2013; Son et al. 2013), and one was concerning the effects on laboratory results of passive immunotherapy (Ostrov, 2013).

Rather than a traditional guest editor, this issue had wonderful contributions in each area, but since the issue was suggested by Dr. Daniel Amsterdam, the author of the HIV immunotherapy article, I will begin the discussion of this issue with Dr. Amsterdam. I feel like I have known Dan since I was very young, and it must be true because I have known him since we both arrived in Buffalo in 1980! He is an accomplished teacher and mentor, and is well known for keeping the clinical laboratories at ECMC at the leading edge to optimize patient diagnosis. He has been a member of the editorial board of Immunological Investigations since 1994. He received his BS from College of the City of New York, his MA from Brooklyn College and his Ph.D. from New York University. He has been certified as a clinical Laboratory Director since 1965, and has been Director of Laboratory Medicine at Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) since 1993. He is a Professor in three departments: Microbiology and Immunology, Medicine, and Pathology at the University at Buffalo. He has written 138 articles including 3 others on HIV. His recent presentations include one on the new testing algorithm for HIV testing which can be found at http://www.nyhospitalstest4hiv.org/laboratory.cfm.

The lead author of the immunotherapy for infectious diseases article is John K. Crane. He received his MD from University of Virginia in 1984, did an internal medicine residency at University of Rochester, and his infectious disease fellowship at University of Virginia. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, and Infectious Disease. He has produced 44 research articles on infectious disease, most concerning enteropathogenic Escherichia coli. He is a Professor of Medicine at The University at Buffalo, Co-Medical Director, Tuberculosis Clinic, Erie County Health Department and the Hospital Epidemiologist, ECMC, Buffalo, New York. A particularly important role because ECMC is a Regional Resource Center for Biopreparedness and has been designated an Ebola Receiving Hospital by New York State Department of Health. For many years, a friend and colleague, he is on the editorial board of Immunological Investigations and in 2010 received the reviewer of the year award from our journal. His co-authors, Drs. Ahuja and Manohar, were Fellows in Infectious Diseases at the University at Buffalo when they wrote the article. Dr. Ahuja has moved to Toronto, Ontario, and Dr. Manohar continues his fellowship.

The next lead authors are co-authors of the fungal immunotherapy article, Dr. Kausik Datta of Johns Hopkins University and Dr. Mawieh Hamad of the University of Sharjah, of the United Arab Emirates. Dr. Datta obtained his Ph.D. from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India. He did his post-doctoral training at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Yeshiva University, and then at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is currently a Senior Research Specialist in the Division of Infectious Disease at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He has 21 publications, all concerning fungal infections and immunology. Dr. Mawieh Hamad received his Ph.D. from the University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is now Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences at the University of Sharjah. He has published 53 research articles and 6 edited book chapters, the majority of them focused on fungal infections.

Barbara E. Ostrov, the author of “Immunotherapeutic Biologic Agents in Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Diseases”, an article that emphasizes immunotherapy of systemic autoimmunity, received her MD, received her MD at SUNY Buffalo School of Medicine followed by combined residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics also in Buffalo. She followed this with a dual fellowship in Pediatric Rheumatology and Internal Medicine Rheumatology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is currently Interim Chair and Medical Director of the Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital in Hershey, Pennsylvania. She has been honored for her mentoring and teaching. She has 45 peer-reviewed papers and 9 book chapters, with the majority of these on autoimmune disorders. Her resume includes many leadership, volunteer and committee roles.

Lucy D. Mastrandrea, the author of “An Overview of Organ-Specific Autoimmune Diseases Including Immunotherapy”, received her MD/Ph.D. from the University of Buffalo. She did her internship and residency in Pediatrics at Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Buffalo, New York. Her fellowship, in pediatric endocrinology, was also at Women’s and Children’s. She is an associate professor at the University at Buffalo, and is Associate Fellowship Program Director, Pediatric Endocrinology/Diabetes. She has authored 20 research articles with many of them on diabetes. A recipient of the American Diabetes Association Mission Recognition “Exemplary Service Award”, she has many additional community service activities, including volunteering at the JDF diabetes summer camp and advocacy and support for teens with diabetes.

The final article, “Active, Immunotherapy of Cancer”, was co-authored by Thinle Chodon, Richard C. Koya, and Kunle Odunsi. Thinle Chodon received her MD and her surgical training from Tribhuvan University Institute of Medicine, Nepal and her Ph.D. from the School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Japan. Her research interests are in immunotherapy, vaccines and adoptive cell therapy and cGMP cell manufacture. She is an assistant professor of Oncology at the Center for Immunotherapy (CFI), Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI). She is also the Director of the CFI Translational Research Operations. She has authored 33 research articles with a focus on adoptive immunotherapy. Richard C. Koya received his MD from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil School of Medicine, and his Ph.D. from Hokkaido University, Japan. He is associate professor of oncology at RPCI, Associate Director of the CFI, and Director of the cGMP Vector Development & Production Facility at the CFI, RPCI. He has authored 78 research articles, with his main focus on tumor immunotherapy. He came to RPCI from his previous position at the University of California at Los Angeles. The senior author of this article was Kunle Odunsi. He plays a number of roles at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. He is Cancer Center Deputy Director, Executive Director of the Center for Immunotherapy, Chair of Gynecologic Oncology, and Co-Leader of the Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy research program. He has authored 229 research articles with a focus on immunotherapy. He received his MD from the University of Ife, Ife-Ife, Nigeria, with training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Cambridge, UK. He received his Ph.D. from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, UK. His residency training was at Yale and his fellowship at RPCI.

These talented authors have been wonderful to work with for this immunotherapy showcase in Immunological Investigations.

I hope that you enjoy the 12th thematic, which coincides with my 12th anniversary as editor of Immunologic Investigations. Certain milestones for Immunological Investigations are worth celebrating. This year our impact factor increased to 1.991 from last year’s 1.903.

The top-downloaded articles in 2014 were “The role of cytokines in inflammatory bone loss” (Souza & Lerner, 2013), “PGE(2)-driven induction and maintenance of cancer-associated myeloid-derived suppressor cells” (Obermajer et al., 2012), “Use of CFSE to monitor ex vivo regulatory T-cell suppression of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell proliferation within unseparated mononuclear cells from malignant and non-malignant human lymph node biopsies” (Hilchey & Bernstein, 2007), “Immune suppression: the hallmark of myeloid-derived suppressor cells” (Haile et al., 2012), “Current trends and investigative developments in celiac disease” (Samasca et al., 2013), “Immunology of hematopoietic stem cell transplant” (Mosaad, 2014), “Function of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue in antibody formation” (Brandtzaeg, 2010), “Host indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase: contribution to systemic acquired tumor tolerance” (Johnson & Munn, 2012), “Interaction of CD5 and CD72 is involved in regulatory T- and B-cell homeostasis” (Zheng et al., 2014), and “The role of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) and lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) in regulation of osteoclastic and osteoblastic cells” (Dziak, 2013).

I would like to thank Dr. Ernesto DeNardin for helping in all problem areas as associate editor, and the editorial board for helping to review 231 papers in 2014 with ∼38% acceptance rate.

I would like to thank the reviewer of the year, Dr. Masso-Welch, for reviewing eight articles last year. A request to the editorial board and all reviewers, I understand that you may be too busy to review occasionally, but please suggest three or four others to do the review. So far this year Immunological Investigations has received 170 articles! Many articles I ask eight or more people before two agree. So please offer the services of those you know if you are too busy!

Kate Rittenhouse-Olson

Editor