CRC 1607’s first Retreat a great success

The first Retreat of the CRC 1607 “Towards immunomodulatory and anti(lymph)angiogenic therapies for age-related blinding eye diseases” from December 6-7 at KSI Siegburg was a great success. 80 researchers, among them several prominent guests, were brought together by the CRC’S speaker and director of the Department of Ophthalmology, Prof. Dr. med. Claus Cursiefen, to get to know the CRC’s many research focus areas, to learn about the first research advances and to find connecting points.

Among the invited speakers were Harvard’s Dr. Natasha Frank (“Multipotent stem cells for treatment of corneal disease”), Heidelberg University Medical Faculty’s Prof. Jonathan Sleeman (“Anti-cancer, immunomodulatory and anti(lymph)angiogenic effects of targeting the transcriptional regulators ID1 and ID3Titel”), Tel Aviv University’s Prof. Fuad Iraqi (“The Collaborative Cross Mice, a powerful genetic reference population for dissecting complex traits”), CECAD’s Dr. Hirotsugu Oda (“Transketolase deficiency in patients with Cogan’s syndrome”) as well as from the CRC Prof. Manolis Pasparakis (“Regulation of cell death and its role in inflammation”), Prof. Steinkasserer (“The long way from basic research results into translational approaches”) , Prof. Reis (“Deciphering the Molecular Basis of Mendelian Disorders”), Prof. Kiefer (“Aspects from the inside: of lymphatics and hypoxia”), Prof. Schulte-Merker (“Schlemm’s canal formation and function: new genes in old pathways”), as well as the Cologne University Hospital’s BioBank.

Three poster sessions enabled direct discussions with the 25 CRC PhD Students who were able to display their first images and research results. The PhD students also had the chance to meet their mentors as part of the CRC’s Integrated Research Training Group.

After the presentations, the scientists were able to exchange ideas informally during a joint dinner and enjoy an evening in the beautiful ambience of the restored monastery.

What stood out were the numerous options for cooperations and collaboration between the projects of the CRC as well as with external researchers – great conditions for successful research in the future. We thank everybody involved for their contributions!