Dear Colleagues,
As the
development and availability of new targeted therapies boosted
important evolutions in the field of clinical immunology, many of us
realized the need for more intensive interaction and collaboration not
only with fundamental immunologists and with industrial partners but
also with our academic colleagues from other organ-specific disciplines
than our own. Therefore, we initiated in 2004 an European Working Group
of leading academic physician-scientists involved in clinical
immunology, rheumatology, dermatology, gastroenterology,
transplantation immunology,… Our global aim is to create a
forum for informal but intensive interaction and networking between
translational immunologists from different organ-specific disciplines.
The keys of our organization are:
- Focus on translational immunology with direct clinical relevance
- Emphasis on cross-disciplinary interactions and projects
- Strong interaction between academia and pharmaceutical partners, especially biotech companies focusing on immunomodulation and immunomonitoring
Our organization is open and democratic. Therefore, all interested partners are welcome to join this initiative.
Over the last
four years, we have made a big step forward to reach this goal through
the organization of the European Workshop on Immune-Mediated
Inflammatory Diseases in Amsterdam in 2006, Nuremberg in 2007, and
London in 2008. In line with the growing interest for this type of
forum for discussion and networking, we are pleased to announce the
Fourth European Workshop on Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases,
which will take place on November 18th-20th in Cascais, Portugal.
We are happy and proud that Prof. Joao Eurico da Fonseca and Prof
Miguel Soares agreed to be the Scientific Chairs of this Fourth EWIMID
workshop.
The workshop
will again be a three-day meeting with thematic cross-disciplinary
sessions as well as a lot of time for poster discussions and oral
presentation of selected abstracts. We will also include 3 satellite
symposia which are aimed to focus on immunomodulation and
immunomonitoring, in close collaboration with pharmaceutical and
biotech partners. A novel initiative in 2009 is the pre-conference CIDAC Masterclass organized
by Prof. Christian Jorgensen on November 18th-20th. This year's
Masterclass, which is restricted to 30 participants and requires a
separate registration, will focus on rheumatoid arthritis. Key
translational researchers in the field will discuss the latest
findings, the crucial unmet medical needs, and the future directions
with participants from industry and academia.
The Workshop
Chairs and the Scientific Committee look forward to your active
participation to the Fourth European Workshop on Immune-Mediated
Inflammatory Diseases.
Yours sincerely,
Dominique Baeten & Martin van Hagen
Organizing Committee