Immunology Section
Minutes from the EAACI Immunology Section Business Meeting
Date: Tuesday, 9th of June 2009 Time: 15:15-17:00
Room: Kinoteka 7, gebouw, Warsaw, Poland
PARTICIPANTS
Thilo Jakob, Barbara Bohle, Mübeccel Akdis, Edward Knol, Marianne van Hage, Eckard Hamelmann, Elena Shekhovcova, Carina Malmhåll, Apostolos Bossios, Aliran
Yildiran, Beretta Ercole, Anna-Karin Ekman, Terese Petterson, Christina Nassenstein, Chrysanthi Skevaki, Ioannis Christodoulou, Paraskevi Maggina, Ismail Peze, Michael Glovsky, Stephan von Gunten, Jørgen Nedergaard Larsen, Heinnrich Dickel, Joost Aalberse, Voican Cosmin, Margareta Sjöstrand, Milena Sokolowska, Carsten Schmidt-Weber, Eva Pekarova, Anna Sediva Ana Sancho, Allen P. Kaplan, Helmut Fiebig, Oliver Cromwell, Hentges, Francois, Knut Schäkel, Philippe Stock, Cornelia Blume, Valéry Wagtmann, Bettina Jensen, Gunnar Nilsson, Jurg Tschopp
1. Welcome
At 15:30, the chairman of the Immunology Section, Thilo Jakob, welcomed all attendees and introduced the keynote speaker Jürg Tschopp, Lausanne Switzerland who gave an outstanding overview on “The role of the inflammasome in the innate immune response”. This keynote lecture was followed by a very active discussion with all participants. 2. Approval of the minutes of the Annual Business Meeting, Barcelona 2008
The minutes of last years business meeting at the XXVII EAACI Congress in Barcelona, Spain (June 10th, 2008) which were displayed on the website of the Immunology Section were approved by the assembly.
3. Report on 2008-2009 activities
Joint Symposium of the EAACI and DGAKI Immunology Sections
“Mechanisms of allergic inflammation” during the 3rd German Allergy Congress, Erfurt, September 10-13 2008. EAACI/European Immunodermatology Society Meeting, Rome, Italy, October 3-4 2008 .
EAACI-GA2LEN 7th Winterschool Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. This years Immunology Winter School on the topic “Basic immunology in allergy and asthma” was organized by Mübeccel Akdis, from SIAF in Davos as joined event with the EAACI Asthma section. A total of 87 pre- and postdoctoral scientists from 28! different countries attended the Winter School. Key note speakers were Arne Akbar (UK), Manfred Kopf (CH), Andrea Radbruch (GE), Andrew Saxon (USA) and Donata Vercelli (USA). In addition, Thilo Jakob (GE) gave an outstanding key note lecture replacing J-Y Liu at the very last moment. The excellent key note lectures formed the basis of the meeting where junior researchers presented their work during oral and poster sessions. During the afternoon there was time for informal gathering and enjoying the surroundings with fresh snow. In the evaluation by the participants the Winter School reached highest scores. The history of the very successful Immunology Section Winter School/Davos meetings have been placed on the EAACI website, thematic month (http://www.eaaci.net/site/content.php?artid=1675) .
World Regulatory Cell Meeting, Davos The Immunology section has actively taken part in WIRM III 2009, organized by C. Akdis in Davos March 22nd-25th 2009. Immunology Section Board Meeting February 7th, 2009. Planning of section activities, nominations for the new chairperson and secretary, the Winter School 2010 and the new section board selection procedure was done at the board meeting of the Immunology Section in Davos on February 7th during the Winter School meeting.
XXVIII EAACI Meeting in Warsaw, June 6-10, 2009. In total 231 abstracts were submitted, reviewed and scored out of which 3 oral presentation sessions (each including 5 abstracts and an introductory talk), 10 poster sessions (each including 15-20 abstracts) and 4 poster discussion sessions (each including 15 abstracts) were proposed by the Immunology Section for the meeting in Warsaw. Twelve travel grants have been suggested. 4. Report on upcoming activities
EAACI/DGAKI joint symposium “Mechanisms of allergic inflammation" This meeting is organized by the EAACI Immunology Section together with the German Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Berlin, September 14th 2009 EAACI symposium "Mechanisms of Immunoregulation” This symposium is organized by the EAACI Immunology section and will take place during the European Immunology Congress in Berlin, September 14-17, 2009, for details see: www.eci-berlin2009
Second interdisciplinary Allergy Symposium, Freiburg The EAACI immunology Section will participate in the 2nd interdisciplinary Allergy Symposium in Freiburg, Germany in October 2009. 8th EAACI-GA2LEN Immunology Winterschool, Grainau Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. As a result of the high success of the previous Winter Schools organized by the Immunology Section in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, this meeting will further be supported by the EAACI ExCom and GA2LEN. The next EAACI-GA2LEN Immunology Winter School will be organized by the EAACI Immunology and Dermatology Sections and will focus on “Basic Immunology Research in Allergy and Dermatology”. The Winter School will be held in Grainau, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany from 11th-14th February, 2010. Thilo Jakob is the local organizer. The meeting will focus on the education of pre- and postdoctoral scientists and young members of EAACI and GA2LEN and will keep the successful “Key-stone Meeting-like” format combining science and winter sports.
WIRM IV Davos, The Immunology Section will actively participate in the organisation of the 4th World Immune Regulation Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, 2010 Postgraduate Course of the Immunology Section during the EAACI meeting in London, 2010 As for the EAACI congress in Warsaw the Immunology Section will organize a Postgraduate Course during the upcoming annual EAACI meeting in London 2010.
5. Postgraduate course at the EAACI meeting in Warsaw
After a disappointing turn-out of our postgraduate course in Gothenburg during the 2007 meeting it was decided to specifically ask the EAACI members on their wishes for the lay-out and content of a postgraduate course organized by the Immunology Section. This questionnaire was send to all EAACI members. A total of 233 members responded to the questionnaire. The outcome of this questionnaire can be found at the EAACI website (http://www.eaaci.net/site/content.php?artid=1675) The outcome led to the postgraduate course titled “What you always wanted to know for your research in allergy” during the Warsaw EAACI meeting and was organized by Eckard Hamelmann. The speakers Armin Braun (GE), Carsten Schmidt-Weber (UK), Stefan Martin (GE) and Edward Knol (NL) gave very good and inter-active presentations resulting in a very active discussion with the participants.
6. Report from the Scientific Committee Meeting (SPC) of the upcoming XXVIIII EAACI congress in London, 2010
B. Bohle reported that the scientific program for the annual meeting in London in 2010 was almost finalized. The format of two parallel plenary sessions - one focussing on basic and one on clinical topics will be kept. The proposals by the Immunology Section are well represented in the scientific program. B. Bohle encouraged the members of the Immunology Section to send in proposals for breakfast seminars and also to suggest keynote speakers for the upcoming business meeting of the Immunology Section in London 2010.
7. EAACI meeting in Istanbul, 2011
Barbara Bohle announced that for the EAACI meeting in Istanbul in 2011 the membership is encouraged to send in proposals for plenary sessions, symposia and workshops. For each plenary session or symposium 3 speakers and for the workshops 3-4 speakers need to be proposed.
8. Meeting venues: 2011-2014
The next venues for the EAACI meetings will be:
2010 London
2011 Istanbul
2012 Geneva
2013 Rome (together with WAO)
2014 Copenhagen
9. Implementation of the new chair person and secretary
The Immunology Section board proposed that Barbara Bohle will succeed Thilo Jakob as the new chairman and Edward Knol will succeed Barbara Bohle as the new secretary for the period of 2009-2011. This proposal was accepted by the EAACI Excom and the new chairman and secretary were implemented. Thilo Jakob stepped down and Barbara Bohle chaired the rest of the business meeting.
10. Introduction of new board members
The new board members of the Immunology Section for the period 2009-2011 were elected by direct internet voting. After a call for the 4 vacant positions via email, interested persons have submitted a CV and a track record to the chairman and/or secretary of the section. This information was then circulated among the board members who selected candidates with regard to their representation of the section interests, academic curriculum and experience, gender representation, and country distribution. In total 17 applications were received, of which 12 were selected by the Immunology board because a maximum number of 3 candidates per position could apply. The 12 candidates were grouped into 3 applicants per position according to geographical distribution. Thereafter, the information on the pre-selected candidates was displayed on the website and every member could vote. A total of 3 calls were sent out to the members of the Immunology Section to vote resulting in 109 votes. The internet voting resulted in the following new board members: Philippe Stock (GE), Carsten Schmidt-Weber (UK), Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann (GE) and Gunnar Nilsson (SE). Barbara Bohle open-heartily welcomed the new members.
Carsten Schmidt-Weber asked if there was a minimum of votes required for a successful election. Whereas we have many more members to our section, the number of 109 votes might be considered relatively low. Barbara Bohle stated that she is still happy with more than 100 votes, because several of the members of the Immunology Section often have also joined other interest groups. Thilo Jakob stated that this was the first time the election for our board members was organized in this way. From the JMA members it was noted that the JMA have had 3 rounds of internet-elections and have continuously observed approximately 100-150 votes. .
11. Farewell to chairman and board members
Barbara Bohle thanked the board members that are leaving the Section board for their active participation, discussions and team spirit in the section board and hands out a small present to Mübeccel Akdis, Marianne van Hage and Eckard Hamelmann. For the farewell of the past chairman Thilo Jakob, Barbara Bohle showed a nice presentation of our chairman in action and thanks Thilo for all his activities during his position as chairman.
12. Concluding remarks
B. Bohle thanked all attendees for their presence and discussion during the meeting. The meeting was closed at 17:00
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