The first immunoinformatics virtual course in Spanish was organized by the Argentinean Veterinary Immunology team and supported by the Veterinary Immunology Committee

Supported by the Veterinary Immunology Committee, the Argentinean Veterinary Immunology Association organized the first immunoinformatic virtual course focused on veterinary immunology. This activity consolidated the Latin-American Veterinary Immunology Network (@RedLatinVet) launched by Dr Alejandra Capozzo during IVIS 2019, in Seattle.

The valuable help received enabled hiring an on-line lecture hall platform, inviting professors and providing scholarships to PhD students. The course was held along November 2020, on Thursdays and Fridays with a theoretical lecture that was opened for 90 participants, followed by an interactive practical class for 25 pre-selected students, among fellow PhD students, postdocs and early-career scientists.

A broad range of topics was covered, including the application of artificial intelligence tools in the field of immunology, combinatorial T-cell epitope libraries, B lymphocyte repertoire and comparative genomics for the study of immune responses, among others. Workshops included the use of on-line available systems biology tools, Rep-Seq and comparative genomics applied to the study of antibodies, analysis of bovine immunity, prediction of T-cell antigen and epitope presentation in cattle using machine learning models, analytical resources tools of the “Immune Epitope Database” (IEDB), docking of antigen-antibody and peptides-MHC interactions, among others.

The whole experience was a great success. Registrations were received from Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile. Participants were selected for the lectures, based on the relevance of the course for their research projects. Spanish was the official language of this course. We have a magnificent group of professors who dedicated their time to share their expertise with the students. The course received high scores from the students and almost 60% considered the training and knowledge they received were extremely useful for their research projects. The course was rated 4.75 out of 5. We were proud to provide our regional research community with a high-level course, training in state-of-the-art tools and novel technologies they can now apply in their projects. This was an important gap in our regions, as more than 60% of the attendees had no previous experience with the use of these informatic tools. This training course was our humble contribution to the development of veterinary immunology research in Latin America.

Organizing Committee:

Dra. Alejandra Capozzo. CONICET Principal researcher of CONCIET. IVIT- CONICET-INTA. Buenos Aires, Argentina Vice President of the AAIV. VIC member.

Dra. Adriana Soutullo. Laboratory for Diagnostic and Agricultural Research. Ministry of Production, Santa Fe. Treasurer of the AAIV.

Vet. Leticia Peralta. Adjunct Professor of the Department of Immunology. School of Veterinary, National University of Rosario, Argentina. Member of the AAIV.

Dra. Cecilia Dogi. Associate Researcher of CONICET. Professor of Immunology. National University of Río Cuarto. Member of the AAIV.