AAI proudly announces the appointment of Bonnie N. Dittel, Ph.D., as the new editor-in-chief of ImmunoHorizons. Dr. Dittel’s five-year term will commence on January 1, 2025, and end on December 31, 2029.
AAI President Stephen Jameson, Ph.D., said, “We are delighted to welcome Bonnie Dittel as editor-in-chief of ImmunoHorizons. Dr. Dittel’s impressive expertise in immunology and her reputation for excellence makes her particularly well-suited for this position. I am confident that she will guide the journal through the changing landscape of publishing, and that ImmunoHorizons will grow under her leadership to further advance the knowledge of immunology globally.”
Pivotal Time for ImmunoHorizons Editor-in-Chief
Dittel takes the reins of ImmunoHorizons at a pivotal time for AAI’s scholarly journals. Beginning in 2025, AAI will partner with Oxford University Press to produce and market both The Journal of Immunology and ImmunoHorizons.
“I am honored to be chosen as the editor-in-chief of ImmunoHorizons, following in the footsteps of previous editors who laid the groundwork for the journal to serve a broad scientific community. As a long-time AAI member, I have watched the field of immunology grow from a relatively new discipline into a science that impacts almost every disease. I envision ImmunoHorizons as the journal that bridges different fields and attracts additional investigators to the field of immunology.” Bonnie N. Dittel, Ph.D.
AAI CEO Loretta Doan, Ph. D., said, “This is an exciting time for ImmunoHorizons, and Dr. Dittel is an outstanding choice to be the journal’s next editor-in-chief. As a previous senior editor of the journal, Dr. Dittel has already made a significant impact, and she has a clear and aspirational vision for growing ImmunoHorizons.”
Immunology Expertise
Dittel received a Ph.D. in pathobiology from the University of Minnesota under the mentorship of Dr. Tucker LeBien. Her doctoral thesis focused on human B cell development. She completed postdoctoral work at the Yale University School of Medicine in the laboratory of Dr. Charles Janeway, where she focused on B cell regulation in autoimmunity.
As a postdoctoral scientist, Dittel became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Research Fellow and advanced to Associate Research Scientist at Yale in 1999. In 2000, she began her tenure as an Associate Investigator at the Versiti Blood Research Institute. In 2009, she advanced to Senior Investigator and received the Dr. Gilbert C. White, II Endowed Chair in 2022. Dittel joined the Medical College of Wisconsin as an Assistant Professor in 2001 and became Professor in 2019.
The Dittel lab studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in regulating inflammation, specifically in the setting of multiple sclerosis. Current work in her lab focuses on the new regulatory B cell subset – B cell IgD Low (BDL) – in maintaining regulatory T cell populations at a level sufficient to dampen inflammation and control disease progression. In 2020, Dittel received the NIH Director’s Fund Transformative Research Award for her work on developing a BDL-based universal adoptive cell therapy to treat autoimmunity and other inflammatory disorders.
Dedicated AAI Member
Dittel was previously a senior editor for ImmunoHorizons and was a section editor for The Journal of Immunology from 2009 to 2013. She served as an Abstract Programming Chair for the AAI annual meeting from 2021 to 2024 and was an appointed member of the Committee on the Status of Women from 2007 to 2012, of which she was appointed Chair from 2009 to 2012. She also served as the AAI representative for the FASEB Excellence in Science Award selection committee from 2009 to 2012. Beyond her involvement with AAI, Dr. Dittel has served on or chaired multiple review panels and NIH study sections. She was named to Stanford’s list of the World’s Top 2% Scientists in 2023.
Founded in 2017, ImmunoHorizons is AAI’s fully open-access, peer-reviewed journal committed to advancing the knowledge of immunology. Dittel succeeds Editor-in-Chief Mark H. Kaplan, Ph.D., whose term began in 2020 and ended in December 2024.
