Scientific Retreat of IRTG 914

The fourth annual scientific retreat of the Integrated Research Training Group (IRTG 914) was held together with two other Graduate Programs in the field of Immunology, the CiM/IMPRS Graduate School from Münster and the Integrated Research Training Group of SFB 1181 (IRTG 1181) from Erlangen. This joint retreat with the topic “Immune cells, vessels and beyond” took place at Kloster Schöntal, Germany in July 2016.

All participants presented their current research work to their fellow students, invited guest speakers and PIs of the graduate programs either by oral or poster presentation. The guest speakers Tobias Fuchs (UKE, Hamburg), Ronen Alon (Weizman Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel), Lydia Sorokin (University of Münster) and Rupert Hallmann (University of Münster) as well as the PIs provided additional scientific background on the presented projects which led to lively discussions about the various projects.

In additional round table discussions, the students had the opportunity to talk about potential collaborations between the graduate programs. Future meetings of the same format were strongly recommended by all participants.

Awards

Three PhD students were honored for their work in the categories best poster and best talk. From among the 50 posters presented and 20 talks given, the winners were:

Best poster:

• Niraimathi Govindasamy, CiM/IMPRS graduate program, Münster
• Carla Winter, IRTG 914 (SFB 914 Project B08), München

Best talk:

• David Druzd, IRTG 914 (SFB 914 Project B09), München

Photo [from left to right]: Martin Wild (coordinator CiM/IMPRS), Markus Sperandio (speaker IRTG 914), David Druzd, Carla Winter, Martin Herrmann (speaker IRTG 1181), Niraimathi Govindasamy, Verena Kochan (coordinator IRTG 914)

Congratulations to all the winners!

(Verena Kochan)