Doctoral students in the limelight at the 2nd Erlanger ...

Doctoral students in the limelight at the 2nd Erlanger International ImmunologySymposium

Max Cooper, Klaus Rajewsky, and Kathryn

Calame, in addition to 17 other outstand-

ing scientists in the field of B- and T-cell

immunology, met in October for 3 days at

a scientific tryst in Erlangen. The occasion

was the 2nd International Symposium on

Regulators of Adaptive Immunity, orga-

nized by Erlanger doctoral students work-

ing in the field of immunology.

This symposium, which took place for

the second time in Erlangen, was created

2 years ago with the aim of offering young

scientists the possibility of building inter-

national contacts at the beginning of

their careers and providing a venue for

discussing their research results with

experts in the field. More than 400

students and scientists from Germany and

neighboring countries enrolled in this

year’s meeting and enjoyed the extensive

social program offered at the symposium

in addition to the exciting talks from 20

internationally renowned immunologists

from the United States, Japan, Great

Britain, Portugal, and Germany in the

field of adaptive immunity.

The 20 speakers at this year’s sympo-

sium, which included six members of the

world-renowned National Academy of

Sciences (USA), covered the entire field of

humoral and cellular adaptive immunity,

with an emphasis on the biology of B and

T lymphocytes (Fig. 1). Max Cooper gave

an exciting talk about a new class of

antibody-like antigen receptors in lower

vertebrates. Kathryn Calame (Fig. 2),

Klaus Rajewsky, Michael Neuberger and

Rudolf Grosschedl discussed the roles

of the DNA-modifying activation-induced

cytidine deamidase, the small non-coding

RNA molecules (so-called microRNA) and

other regulators such as transcription

factors during the control of the humoral

immunity. Flavius Martin, Matthias Wabl,

Shigekazu Nagata (Fig. 3), David Nema-

zee, and Mark Shlomchik presented new

perspectives on the elucidation and treat-

ment of autoimmune diseases. Jurgen

Wienands described a novel signaling

pathway that distinguishes naive from

memory B lymphocytes, while Jing Wang,

from the laboratory of Fred Alt, offered

stimulating insights into new molecular

mechanisms for the pathogenesis of

leukemia. In addition, Harald von Boeh-

mer, Dan Littman, Thomas Hunig, Art

Weiss, John Kappler, Antonio Coutinho

(Fig. 4), Georg Bornkamm, and Ulrich

Koszinowski presented new findings

regarding the function of T lymphocytes

during the cellular defense against

tumors, viruses and bacteria as well as

their involvement in autoimmune disea-

ses. The scientific presentations at this

year’s symposium proposed many new

findings in this challenging branch of

immunology and demonstrated the enor-

mous possibilities for translating these

results into new treatment concepts

that may potentially be implemented in

the clinic.

The 42 doctoral students who organized

this symposium are members of training

programs from three specific immunologi-

cally oriented research groups, all of

which are financed by the German

Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungs-

gemeinschaft, DFG) and include the Research

Training Group (Graduiertenkolleg GK592)

‘Lymphocytes’ (speaker: Hans-Martin Jack)

Figure 1. Guest speakers and congress organizers.

& 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.eji-journal.eu

Eur. J. Immunol. 2009. 39: 339–341 FORUM 339

and the Research Group FOR832 ‘Regu-

lators of Humoral Immunity’ (speakers:

Thomas Winkler and Hans-Martin Jack).

Both these groups focus on the differ-

entiation, activation, and deviation of

lymphocytes, whereas the third group,

Training Group GK1071 (speaker: Bern-

hard Fleckenstein), studies the interaction

between viruses and the immune system.

Interestingly, all three programs empha-

size the importance of educating the

public, as evidenced by the fact that the

graduate students participate in the Long

Night of Science in Erlangen and organize

events for the yearly International Day

of Immunology at the market square of

Erlangen. These events, among others,

provide a unique opportunity for the

doctoral students to communicate infor-

mation from various fields of biomedical

sciences such as immunology and infec-

tion biology to the public. Furthermore,

the doctoral students, who serve as

mentors of young pupils from several

Erlanger high schools, also organize

laboratory courses and seminars to further

educate these students.

The idea of organizing an international

congress with a focus on the adaptive

immune system was developed during a

field trip to a Munich biotech company in

December 2005 and subsequently resulted

in the 1st Symposium in September 2006.

Due to the success of this first meeting, the

following class of graduate students deci-

ded to organize the 2nd International

Symposium on Regulators of Adaptive

Immunity. One year in advance, an orga-

nization committee composed of ten

students and two professor-level consul-

tants (Prof. Jack (GK592) and Dr.

Biesinger-Zwostra (GK1071)) began orga-

nizing and developing the curriculum for

this 2nd Symposium. The tasks of the

organizing committee included, among

others, the development of the program,

the generation of a list of invited speakers,

the organization of the social program, and

the pick-up service and hotel reservations

for the guests. In addition, the low regis-

tration fee, which emphasizes the student-

oriented approach of the symposium,

required that the committee procure addi-

tional funds. The student committee was

able to obtain public funding from the Free

State of Bavaria, the German Research

Society, and the Multidisciplinary Centre of

Erlangen for the Clinical Research (IZKF).

Moreover, company contacts established

by a former graduate student during the

organization of the 1st Symposium were

very helpful in collecting generous contri-

butions from a variety of companies.

The selection of the speakers was of

course a high priority; so a ‘‘wish list’’ was

compiled by all the doctoral students

according to their primary research inter-

ests. From this list, the students invited 30

scientists, 20 of whom accepted within a

short period of time. Interestingly, since all

of the speakers are working in the field of

adaptive immunity, most of these partici-

pants knew each other from previous

congresses and thus used the symposium

to exchange ideas with old friends in

addition to building new contacts. As all

the invited speakers communicated to the

students, the most compelling reason for

accepting the invitation was the fact that

Figure 2. Kathryn Calame (New York, USA) talks to a packed lecture hall.

Figure 3. Shigekazu Nagata (Osaka, Japan). Figure 4. Antonio Coutinho (Lisboa, Portugal).

Eur. J. Immunol. 2009. 39: 339–341FORUM340


the symposium was exclusively organized

by graduate students and that the venue of

the congress provided them with the

opportunity to exchange ideas with

colleagues in their field.

However, during the symposium, the

students did not operate simply as organi-

zers; rather, they acted like gracious hosts.

In order to establish a more personable

setting from the beginning, all of the

speakers were met by students at the

airport or at the railway station and were

subsequently accompanied through Erlan-

gen to all of the events. A special session

offering the opportunity to establish

contacts among students and the Erlanger

immunology faculty included a five-course

dinner held on the opening night at a first-

class restaurant in Erlangen. In order to

create a pleasant atmosphere for socializ-

ing, significant importance was placed on

the seating arrangements, such that two

students were located directly next to the

guest speaker of their choice (Fig. 5).

After a very stimulating second day,

the visiting speakers took part in a poster

session organized for the evening by the

Erlanger students. Although there was

initial skepticism from certain guest

speakers regarding the 2 h poster session,

which was open only to the guest speak-

ers, the Erlanger immunology faculty, and

the graduate students, this session proved

to be quite fruitful for everyone. Each

guest speaker found the timeframe and

the limited number of posters to be an

agreeable format and thoroughly enjoyed

the stimulating discussions with the

graduate students as well as the opportu-

nity to develop personal contacts. In

addition, all of the Erlanger graduate

students unanimously concluded that this

was the best and most productive poster

discussion that they ever had.

After intensive exchange of ideas,

everybody was happy to relax in a more

casual atmosphere, for which the official

congress prepared a party for all of

the symposium’s registered participants.

Music was mixed together by an Erlanger

professor for over 250 guests, who cele-

brated into the early morning hours on

the dance floor. Despite a short night of

rest, it was a pleasant surprise to see that

the lecture hall on the following morning

of the last day of the congress was full,

which we believe speaks to the stimulating

nature of the presentations. The congress

finished with a final dinner with an

exciting round of guests and the Erlanger

students and faculty.

In summary, the 2nd International

Symposium on Regulators of Adaptive

Immunity was a great success and would

have not been possible without the

incredible effort from all the graduate

students in addition to the support and

the experience of the faculty members

from the three Erlanger research groups.

This symposium was a highlight in the

congress year 2008 for the guest speakers,

the participants, and all of the organizers.

Accordingly, given the motto ‘‘after the

congress is before the congress’’, the

planning for the 3rd International GK

Symposium in 2010 has already begun,

and we expect that we will compile an

attractive list of speakers and attract even

more international guests to the next

Erlanger Immunology Symposium.

Carmen Kroczek1 Stefanie Thiele2 and

Rebecca Winkelmann1

1Division of Molecular Immunology,

Department of Internal Medicine III,

Nikolaus-Fiebiger-Center for Molecular

Medicine, University of Erlangen-

Numberg, Erlangen2Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicol-

ogy, University of Erlangen-Numberg,

Erlangen

www.lymphozyten.de

Correspondence: Rebecca Winkelmann,

e-mail: [email protected]

erlangen.de

Figure 5. Klaus Rajewsky (Boston, USA) andStefanie Thiele (organiser) deep in discussionat the opening night’s dinner.

EFIS Bursaries for ECI Berlin

EFIS is offering 300 travel grants at h500 each for young scientists (i.e. post-docs and PhD

students under 35 years) to attend the 2nd European Congress of Immunology (ECI 2009) in

Berlin (September 13–16, 2009; www.eci-berlin2009.com). The age limit will not strictly apply

to applicants from Eastern European countries.

To be eligible for a grant, the applicant must be the first author of an abstract submitted to

the 2nd ECI. The applicant must also be a member of an efis constituent society.

Only one grant will be allocated per person and the grant cannot be transferred.

To apply please download the application form from the travel Grant section of the ECI web site

http://www.eci-berlin2009.com/eci2009/redaktion/infos/Travel_Grants.php

and return the completed form by email to the efis secretariat ([email protected]) No later than April 1, 2009.

Awardees of the efis Travel Scholarship for the 2nd ECI will be notified by the end of May 2009 and will receive their grants

upon claim during the congress at the Travel Grant Counter. The grant will be distributed neither before nor after the Congress.

Eur. J. Immunol. 2009. 39: 339–341 FORUM 341


Doctoral students in the limelight at the 2nd Erlanger ...

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