History of the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum: A Very Special Society Devoted to Allergy and Immunology

In the early 50s of the last century, allergy and immunology were not among the first disciplines to be recognized and academically established strongly within European and North American Universities, partly due to the interdisciplinary character of these fields. There was a trend to form national and international societies under various names like “Allergy,” “Allergology,” “Allergy and Clinical Immunology,” “Allergy and Immunity Research,” or others. In 1951, the “International Association of Allergy and Clinical Immunology” was founded, followed by the “European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology” [1].

There was a feeling that in between these rather large societies it would be good to have a smaller group, allowing more intense contact and discussions between the leaders in the field. So on October 15, 1954, the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum – soon known under the acronym of “CIA” – was founded in the city of London by 48 well-known clinical investigators and basic immunologists from 18 countries of all continents and from very different fields of medicine and biological research. The majority was Anglo-Saxon with 10 scientists from United Kingdom, 7 from USA, and 3 from Australia (Table 1) [2].

The statutes clearly define the aims of this association with the simple sentence.“the Collegium is an international group for study of scientific and clinical problems in allergy and related branches of medicine and immunology. The collegiums aims to promote the humble spirit of scientific enquiry, friendly cooperation, good fellowship and professional relationships in the field of allergy.”

Not fortuitous was it that the acronym “CIA” alluded to a somehow exclusive character of this club of friends. From the beginning, membership was originally limited to maximum of 100 living members and since 1986 to 250 active members.

Nobody can apply for membership. New members only can be introduced by invitation through a CIA member; before they will be selected, he or she has to present original research work at one symposium as active participant. The Collegium is governed by a Council of 8 members and the officers including the president, the past president, the vice president, and the secretary.

The first president was D. Harley from London, with Vice president J. Duchaine from Brussels. The secretary was Paul Kallos from Helsingborg who did most of the organizational work in the first decades.

For many decades (1980–2010), 2 eminent scientists, Alain de Weck in Europe and Lawrence M. Lichtenstein in the USA (Fig. 1, 2), played a semiformal but substantial role in recruiting new members from different countries and in supporting the organization of several biannual meetings. The Alain de Weck travel grant program to support young fellows, named after him, has been established to recognize his dedication to the Collegium. The most important activity of the Collegium is the organization of a scientific meeting in a biannual rhythm on very special places going around the world.

The last 32nd symposium has held in Palma de Mallorca in October 2018. The 33rd symposium should take place in September 2020 in Montebello, ON (Canada). Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the symposium has been postponed to 2021.

The list of members of the Collegium reads like a “Who is Who” in Allergy and Clinical Immunology over the decades. Table 2 shows the list of officers. From the beginning until recently, it was predominantly the task of the secretaries to organize continuity, starting with Paul Kallos who did this over almost 20 years followed by Alain de Weck, John Bienenstock, and Johannes Ring. A more regular election of officers was introduced in 2002 starting officer work with secretary and moving progressively on to vice president (“president elect”) and finally president.

In the Council, the international character of the Collegium over the years is very well represented (Table 3). The council proposes the officers to the general assembly during the business meeting. It is also responsible for putting together the program of the symposia which is distilled from active contributions by the members critically reviewed before acceptance.“This is a society which does not have politics involved in its administrative discussions, which in itself is a pleasure and a rarity!” said former president John Bienenstock.

The biannual symposia are the major activity of the Collegium and organized in special locations preferably on attractive and sometimes isolated locations like an island in order to keep the people together after the sessions and allow free time for discussion and friendly interchange (Fig. 3-6). It is expected that the participants stay over the whole length of the 5-day symposium. A fundamental is a short boat ride which sometimes can lead to very untoward sensations like motion sickness as has happened sometimes. Table 4 shows the list and locations of the 32 symposia in the past together with the local organizers (Fig. 7-9). As previously mentioned, the 2020 meeting was planned to be held in Montebello, ON, Canada. The history of the scientific contributions to the CIA symposia reflects the progress in the field from very basic biology and immunology to the clinical aspects of allergen-specific immunotherapy, new pharmacotherapies, and novel biological therapies [3-10].

Sometimes the developments were presented by persons who later received the Nobel Prize (e.g., Bengt Samuelsson [Stockholm], Erwin Neher [Goettingen] or Stanley Prusiner [San Francisco], Luc Montagnier [Paris], and Bruce Beutler [Dallas]). The essence of this meeting is a very open discussion which usually stays friendly, but sometimes can be quite vehement as for instance 1986 in Goeteborg with Luc Montagnier and Roberto Gallo discussing HIV infection and in 1980 in Konstanz with the discussion between Jacques Benveniste (Paris) and Neil Pinckard (Denver) on the structure of Platelet Activating Factor.

The scientific contents of the symposia are published in proceedings volumes which for a long time were printed within the series “Monographs in Allergy” [9], then the “International Archives of Allergy and Immunology,” which is still the official journal of the Collegium [6]. Later they were printed by Hogrefe-Huber (Toronto) and Pacini editore (Pisa) [4, 7, 8, 10]. In the time of internet and electronic publications, it remains open as to how long bound volumes of symposium proceedings will still be attractive. The organization of a CIA symposium is a major task, not so much because of the scientific content which is usually excellent since everybody tries to bring her/his best scientific results but in providing a social atmosphere of a “family spirit” also attractive for spouses, partners, and families.

From the beginning, the Collegium has been a blend of well-established scientists and young promising fellows in the field of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The Alain de Weck travel grant program has been very successful to identify young brilliant clinical and basic investigators and to attract them into the club.

All contributions submitted by the participants are regarded equal after review and acceptance and presented as oral communications or posters whereby the poster presentations have the advantage to be presented over the whole duration of the symposium, while the oral communications usually only have a time slot of 15–20 min. There are 3 special lectures which have been developed over the decades, namely Carl Prausnitz lecture (Table 5) and the Paul Kallos lecture (Table 6) dedicated to progress in allergy and immunology; the Carl Prausnitz lecture every other year is given by the departing president. Since some years the tradition of a “relaxing from immunology,” lecture has been created and very much estimated to make participants not only think in a narrow-minded fashion of their own specialty but also open to other horizons and philosophical themes, as, for example, the unforgettable lecture of Tomio Tada on “The Ma and the Kata” in Hakone, Japan in 2000 (Fig. 10; Table 7).

There is a long-lasting tradition of the “CIA minutes” to give by a gifted speaker during the gala dinner and reflecting not only the scientific highlights of the preceding symposium. This tradition was started by Geoffrey West and continued by John Bienenstock and Steve Galli [2].

There also was a tradition that new members were asked interesting and sometimes quite personal questions prior to their official introduction into the Collegium at the gala dinner. Some members felt that this was the most difficult examination they had to pass in their occupational life. But all survived and are working together in this “humble and friendly spirit” so that the Collegium will have a bright future.

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Edited by: H.-U. Simon, Bern.