Oxford-Berlin School on Molecular Basis of Inflammatory Diseases

Congratulations to the poster prize awardees of the Oxford-Berlin School

Impressions of the Oxford-Berlin School 2022 in Berlin

About the School

The OX-BER School on Molecular Basis of Inflammatory Diseases was recently established in the framework of a collaboration between the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology (KIR), Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS) and the Rheumatology Departments at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Deutsches Rheuma-Forschungszentrum Berlin (DRFZ), a Leibniz Institute.

The aim of this school is to bring together graduate students and clinician scientists from across the globe, with faculty of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and DRFZ in a structured programme providing advanced training in the molecular mechanisms and pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory disease.

Here you can download the programme

Follow us on twitter: @oxber_MBID

Background

Inflammation is central to a diverse range of human diseases, including inflammatory and osteoarthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. The common pathways which drive inflammation in disease remain incompletely understood, and an area of great research interest. The key aim of the school is to bring together researchers interested in inflammation biology across the spectrum of disease, and to provide a mix of education with exciting and novel science. The course is designed to be highly interactive, with many opportunities for participants and faculty to mix and discuss their work, including during poster sessions. Theoretical training will be provided on the latest cutting edge technologies used to study inflammation, including single cell genomics, in vivo imaging, and mass cytometry during technical workshops.

The faculty is comprised of world class researchers from the University of Oxford, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, DRFZ, and Karolinska Institute.

Program

Time	Thursday 09.06.2022	Friday 10.06.2022
08:15	Welcome
08:30-09:00	Chiara Romagnani Clonal expansion and epigenetic inheritance of long-lasting NK cell memory	Mike Dustin (OX) The immunological synapse in defence against cancer and infection
09:00-09:30	Andreas Diefenbach Group 3 innate lymphoid cells instruct cryptopatch-associated dendritic cells establishing a checkpoint for metabolic homeostasis	Audrey Gerard (OX) T cell dynamics and differentiation
9.30-10.00	Break	Break
10:00-10:30	Antigoni Triantafyllopoulou Innate Immune-mediated Organ Damage in SLE	Max Löhning T cell adaptation
10:30-11:00	Jelena Bezbradica Mirkovic (OX) Inflammasome	Julia Polansky Epigenetic regulation: from genome-wide signatures to local regulators and their targeted modification
11.00-11.30	Break	Break
11:30-12:00	Britta Siegmund Fat tissue in inflammatory bowel disease	Alexander Clarke (OX) Immunometabolism in inflammatory disease
12:00-12:30	Andreas Radbruch Pathogenic Immunological Memory in Chronic Inflammatory Diseases	Thomas Dörner Paradigm changes in SLE
12:30-13:00	Gerd Burmester Current and future challenges in RA	Irina Udalova (OX) Neutrophils in inflammatory diseases
13:00-14:00	Lunch	Lunch
14:00-14.30	Keynote lecture Fiona Powrie (OX) Host microbe interactions in the intestine	Anja Hauser Dynamics of plasma cells and their tissue niches
14:30-15:00		Tal Arnon (OX) Immune cell niches
15:00-15:30	Jethro Johnson (OX) Identifying a gut microbiome contribution to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease	Katja Simon Autophagy in inflammatory responses
15:30-16:00	Luke Jostins-Dean (OX) Genetic architecture of inflammatory bowel disease	Lynn Dustin (OX) Persistent infection and chronic inflammation
16:00-16:30	Break	Break
	Technology platforms
16:30-17:15	Stephen Sansom & Mir-Farzin Mashreghi Spatial transcriptomic characterization of COVID-19 pneumonitis identifies immune circuits related to tissue injury & Next generation sequencing	Henrik Mei Mass cytometry and imaging mass cytometry
17:15-18:00	Anja Hauser, Ralcua Niesner Intravital microscopy and imaging	Hyun-Dong Chang & Toralf Kaiser Flow cytometry
18:00-18:45	Mark Coles Computational Immunology and mathematical modelling	Marco Fritzsche (OX) Quantifying the mechanobiology of T-cell activation with advanced microscopy technologies
18:45-20:30	Poster sessions by participants and Dinner	Poster sessions by participants and Dinner

List of speakers

Turbinenhalle Berlin - the Event location

Friedrich-Krause-Ufer 10-15, 13353 Berlin

Exterior view of the turbine hall © J. Hirscher

Lounge © J. Hirscher

Announcement

Participation

We welcome applications from Master students, Ph.D. students, MD students, and junior clinician-scientists with an interest in rheumatic or chronic inflammatory diseases.

All participants will be able to directly interact and discuss science with the speakers during breaks and poster sessions. Each participant can present a poster.

The two days will start at 8.00 a.m. and end around 8.00 p.m. after the poster session. On Thursday evening, the poster session will be followed by a “get together”.

Application and registration
please submit your application including:

a research abstract (140 words max.)
OR a motivation letter explaining why you would like to attend the meeting (1 page max.)
and your CV (pdf file upload)

Due to limited space, the number of participants is restricted to 60. Selection criteria are quality of the submitted abstract, motivation, and academic achievements.

Up to three poster prizes will be awarded to the best three poster presentations.

Registration fee

The registration fee is 50 Euros. This includes drinks, lunch and dinner and the opportunity to present a poster. Printing costs cannot be covered.

Sponsorships

The event is supported by a grant from the OX/BER-BIH Joint Seed Funding as well as the Leibniz ScienceCampus Berlin for Chronic Inflammation and the Charité Stiftung.

If you are also interested in joining us as a sponsor for our current school please contact Ms. Jacqueline Hirscher as soon as possible. Thank you!

Contact: ox-ber-mbid@drfz.de

The organising committee

Ahmed Hegazy
Alexander Clarke
Audrey Gerard
Marina Kolesnichenko
Andreas Radbruch
Chiara Romagnani
Mir-Farzin Mashreghi
Elise Siegert
Antigoni Triantafyllopoulou
Hyun-Dong Chang
Andrey Kruglov
Jacqueline Hirscher
Ute Hoffmann

Hygiene concept

This will be a face-to-face meeting and will be organised according to local regulations in Berlin. All attendees will be required to be either fully vaccinated or recovered and received a booster vaccination. To be able to interact freely and feel safe, we will provide corona rapid tests to the attendees to get tested daily.

#rheumatology
#chronic inflammation
#IBD
#osteoarthritis

Announcement