A recent publication by the EGIS members Sebastian Weis and Michael Bauer reveals a new facet of the recently described long-term memory of innate immune cells, termed trained immunity and its role in sepsis. The authors can show that the course of sepsis is altered when the infected organism had previously been exposed to the host-derived molecule heme, an alarmin that is relased upon tissue damage. Heme application did not only affect macrophage function in vivo upon secondary stimulation.

The world currently experiences unprecedented research efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent paper of the EGIS members J-M Cavaillon and MF Osuchowski in the Journal of Intensive Medicine puts this process into historical context by comparing the current pandemic to previous pandemics and sepsis. In particular, the paper pays tribute to Waldemar Haffkine, the scientist before Katalin Kariko, who addressed infectious epidemics by offering a vaccine approach already in the 19^th century.

Three decades of sepsis research resulted in major progress in understanding the underlying pathophysiology. However, these successes have been thwarted by failing translation to sepsis therapies. J-M. Cavaillon and colleagues recently provided a comprehensive review on current knowledge, lessons learned from failing trials and novel approaches.

Cavaillon J-M, Singer M, Skirecki T Sepsis therapies: learning from 30 years of failure of translational research to propose new leads. EMBO Mol Med: e10128

Increasing evidence supports a central role of the immune system in sepsis, but the current view of how sepsis affects immunity, and vice versa, is still rudimentary. The European Group on Immunology of Sepsis has identified major gaps that should be addressed with high priority, such as understanding how immunological alterations predispose to sepsis, key aspects of the immunopathological events during sepsis, and the long-term consequences of sepsis on patient's immunity.

The long-term consequences of sepsis on the immune system are currently only scarcely understood. Aiming to promote research on this critical gap, EGIS member Dr. Florian Uhle, together with the journal “Frontiers in Immunology” initiated the research topic “Long-term Consequences of Sepsis and Severe Trauma on Innate and Adaptive Immunity”.

The topic accepts manuscript submission until 16^th February 2020. Vladimir Badovinac (Iowa City, USA) and Thomas Griffith (St. Paul, USA), both eminent researcher from the field, serve as further guest editors.