new delhi

Organizers of the 10th International Congress on Immunology, due to be held in New Delhi in November, are shrugging off demands for a boycott from some members of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) in protest at India's recent nuclear tests.

But several of those attending the meeting are still seeking to use the opportunity to register their disapproval of the tests and the international proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Eight foreign researchers have withdrawn their registration, but the organizers say they are relieved that a resolution was passed by the association last month expressing its support for the congress.

But they have been upset by a message circulated on the Internet by immediate past AAI president Charles Janeway of Yale University, urging the association not to support the travel of US scientists to India.

Janeway says he never intended to encourage a boycott of the conference, but adds that there is “a serious attempt, spearheaded by Indian scientists working in [the United States], and by myself, to attend the meeting and hold a special session on the Indian nuclear tests. We hope [to] maintain our scientific ties [with India] while protesting at the testing of nuclear weapons by India and Pakistan.”

Abul Abbas, professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, shares similar sentiments, but focuses on the dangers of worldwide nuclear proliferation. “It would be wonderful if scientists from India, Pakistan and all other nations could join to make a statement [at the congress] deploring the current situation,” he says.

Some 1,430 overseas scientists have registered for the week-long congress, organized every three years under the aegis of the International Union of Immunological Societies.

The congress's president, Gursaran Prasad Talwar, an emeritus researcher at the International Centre for Genetic Enginnering and Biotechnology in New Delhi, says he is pleased that many of the world's top immunologists plan to attend.

Although basic immunology will be the main focus, the New Delhi conference will for the first time devote three symposia and several workshops to what Talwar says is “beneficial immunology”, including vaccines against cancer, allergies and autoimmune diseases such as arthritis. For the first time, the immunology of drug abuse and ocular disease will be discussed. Talwar says 108 ‘interactive’ workshops have been designed to benefit young investigators.