Report on the 9th ESID Prague Spring Meeting, May 10-11, 2010.
Department of Immunology, 2nd Medical School, Charles University, University Hospital Motol, Prague, Czech Republic
The ninth ESID Prague Spring Meeting was organized at the University Hospital Motol, Prague, Czech Republic, on May 10 and 11, 2010. The meeting was attended by 33 participants from 11 countries, majority of them from Czech Republic, further from Belarus, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and United Kingdom. The emphasis on active participation and presentation of young scientists was the hallmark of this event. ESID junior working party was represented by its chair Crina Samarghitean and presentations by junior members from Czech Republic, Hungary, Belarus, Germany and Italy.
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. This tradition also continued this year supported by a travel grant provided by ESID for junior immunologist from Belarus.
The invited speakers formed an excellent background for discussions and exchange of information. This year the meeting was attended by professors Lennart Hammarström from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden and Klaus Warnatz from University Hospital Freiburg, Germany, who both gave special talks on CVID. Novel genes causing PIDs were shown by Bodo Grimbacher, particularly new mutations in CARD9 and mucocutaneous candidiasis were the main topic of his presentation
CVID and hyper IgE syndrome arose as major themes of the meeting. Complexity of CVID was covered by invited lectures and supported by presentations of other participants. Traditionally the closing session was devoted to the case reports. The opportunity to discuss inspiring and interesting new cases was valuable particularly for young participants. The attention was also paid to the registry of PIDs. The effort to call medical students for help with administrative work for registry was successful in Prague center and first results of their work were also shown in the meeting.
Social program was particularly special this year, underlined by an opening exhibition of paintings by students of Academy of Fine Arts in Prague on a theme of immune system. Students and their teachers presented their paintings inspired by visits of Department of Immunology in Prague University Hospital. The city of Prague was again beautiful, despite May rainy weather.
The meeting was traditionally organized as a part of the activities related to the Day of Immunology, declared by EFIS on 29th April, 2010. ESID Prague Spring Meeting is also an activity of well known J project meetings. It was supported by the Charles University, 2nd Medical School, Prague and by University Hospital Motol, Prague. Substantial contributions came from the traditional general sponsor – Olympus, from pharmaceutical companies Baxter, Exbio, Grifols, Immunotech, Schoeller Pharma and The Biding Site, in alphabetical order, and from Czech Immunology Society.
We thank all the participants for their contributions and we are looking forward to the next 10th anniversary meeting in 2011, May 9 - 10!
Anna Šedivá, Andrea Poloučková, Ilona Kyselová
Prague, June, 18th, 2010
