Progress and history of the 10th Federation of African Immunological Societies Congress

The 10th Federation of African Immunological Societies (FAIS) Congress, held in Tunisia in November 2017, marked a significant scientific milestone. It enabled scientists from across the continent to promote immunology research and to showcase major achievements made by immunologists throughout Africa. This issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology (JLB) features manuscripts from the FAIS Congress. As noted in these papers, research in infectious diseases remains the focus of the African immunology community; however, increasingly noncommunicable diseases—such as autoimmunity, allergy, primary immunodeficiency, cancer and transplantation immunology—are also an emerging priority. This overview gives a brief history of the FAIS meeting, which also commemorated the 25th anniversary of the FAIS. It describes the current activities of the organization, as well as its history and the future opportunities for this Federation. In 25 years the African immunology fraternity has expanded to 15 countries and is producing quality research in regionally relevant topics.