Welcome

it is with great pleasure that we welcome you on behalf of the Austrian Society of Allergology and Immunology (ÖGAI) to the 4th European Congress of Immunology (ECI) in Vienna from September 6-9, 2015.

The 4th ECI will cover all fields of modern immunology and adhere to a 4-track structure covering the topics innate immunity, adaptive immunity, diseases of the immune system and immune interventions. The 4-track program will streamline symposia, workshops as well as poster sessions enabling easy crosstalk between topics and types of sessions planned. In fact, novel forms of immune interventions represent one of the most exciting success stories of modern medicine. Thus, a special focus of the 4th ECI will be put on the fine balance between basic and applied/translational research. Delegates will be offered 150+ talks by invited speakers, plenary lectures by ‘immunology icons’, more than 400 oral presentations selected from abstracts, as well as guided poster walks. A special emphasis will be devoted to the education of our young scientists and students. In addition, the 4th ECI will be embedded into a number of satellite meetings dealing with related topics.

High caliber immunological research has a long and strong tradition in Vienna. In fact, more than one hundred years ago, the Viennese Nobel laureate Karl Landsteiner discovered the blood groups and Clemens von Pirquet coined the term ‘Allergy’ in Vienna. In addition, Vienna has a longstanding tradition as an important central European city, which dates back to ancient Roman times. Vienna had been the capital of the Habsburgian Monarchy for centuries and developed into a world-renown center for music and fine arts. The surrounding countries had strong influence on Vienna’s culture, architecture and cuisine, thus, Vienna can be considered as a true melting pot of nations with a truly cosmopolitan flair. Today, Vienna belongs to the cities with the highest living standards in the world. The many sights, which are waiting for you include the operas, museums, concert halls, castles, traditional inns and small wineries (Heurigen), the Vienna Woods, and the most beautiful Danube valley with its vineyards.

We will do our best to make the 4th ECI a most memorable scientific, social and cultural event for you. We very much look forward to hosting you in Vienna in September 2015!

Winfried F. Pickl, MD
President 4th ECI

Barbara Bohle, PhD
President Scientific Program
Committee 4th ECI

The ECI 2015 wants to thank the following associations for their support by providing travel grants to our delegates: