Summary of the 2016 Alcohol and Immunology Research Interest Group (AIRIG) meeting

On November 18, 2016 the 21st annual Alcohol and Immunology Research Interest Group (AIRIG) meeting was held at the Center for Translational Research and Education at Loyola University Chicago's Health Sciences Campus in Maywood, IL. The 2016 meeting focused broadly on alcohol and inflammation, epigenetics, and the microbiome. The four plenary sessions of the meeting were Alcohol, Inflammation, and Immunity; Alcohol and Epigenetics; Alcohol, Transcriptional Regulation, and Epigenetics; and Alcohol, Intestinal Mucosa, and the Gut Microbiome. Presentations in all sessions of the meeting explored putative underlying causes for chronic diseases and mortality associated with alcohol consumption, shedding light on future work and potential therapeutic targets to alleviate the negative effects of alcohol misuse. •The 2016 AIRIG meeting presented new preliminary data regarding the influence of alcohol consumption on epigenetics and the immune system.•Alcohol changes the microbiome, which has been implicated in worsened pneumonia or alcoholic liver disease.•Alcohol negatively affects the development of anxiety-like behaviors, liver disease, colitis, and lung diseases.•Alcohol consumption affects circulating biomarkers of modulated immunity and inflammation in multiple organs and tissues.•This meeting brought together alcohol and immunology from researchers from multiple fields to discuss common interests.