Report on the 10th ESID Prague Spring Meeting.
The tenth ESID Prague Spring Meeting was organized at the University Hospital Motol, Prague, Czech Republic, on May 9 and 10, 2011. The meeting was attended by 39 participants from 12 countries, majority of them from Czech Republic, further from Austria, Bulgaria, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, and United Kingdom. This anniversary meeting has further strengthened very active participation of ESID juniors on this event.
Since its launch in 2002 the Prague ESID meeting has been devoted to the exchange of information on primary immunodeficiencies (PIDs) between Western and Central and Eastern Europe. Continuous and successful transfer of knowledge from West to East was clearly demonstrated during the meeting, with steadily rising quality of scientific presentations particularly by Eastern European participants.
The meeting was very nicely supported by excellent contributions of invited speakers who encouraged very vivid discussions during all scientific sessions. This year´s main topic, CVID, was covered by Helen Chapel from UK. Helen Chapel was the initiator and founder of this series of meetings and was invited specifically for 10th anniversary meeting as a distinguished guest. Andrew Cant, also from UK, contributed greatly to the friendly atmosphere of entire event. Kaan Boztug from Austria brought top level science to the meeting and in the same time offered working and PhD positions. Such opportunities to find PhD students or to get PhD positions become gradually one of the most valuable benefits of ESID Prague Spring Meetings.
Social program was very carefully planned on the occasion of 10th anniversary meeting. Short stroll through Prague, followed by Czech dinner and later by a visit to night Zoo underlined junior character of the meeting and was appreciated by all participants. Students of Academy of Fine Arts in Prague also contributed to the festive character of anniversary event by designing graphics specifically for Prague Spring Meeting participants. Graphic was given to everybody as a reminder of the decade of Prague events.
The meeting was traditionally organized as a part of the activities related to the Day of Immunology, declared by EFIS on 29th April, 2011 and to PI week, for the first time organized in 2011. ESID Prague Spring Meeting was also held on the occasion of opening of Jeffrey Modell Diagnostic and Therapeutic Center for Primary Immunodeficiencies, awarded to Prague center in 2011. The meeting was supported by the Charles University, 2nd Medical School, Prague and by University Hospital Motol, Prague. Substantial contributions came from the traditional general sponsors – Olympus, from Roche and Pražská Plynárenská a.s., and from companies Baxter, Exbio, Grifols, Novartis, Scintila, Synlab and Shire, in alphabetical order, and from Czech Immunology Society.
We thank all the participants for their contributions and we are looking forward to the next meetings in Prague.
Anna Šedivá, Andrea Poloučková
Prague, May 13, 2011
