Welcome

Dear colleagues and friends,

This FEBS Advanced Lecture Course is part of very successful series of summer schools with a 50-year tradition on the wonderful Island of Spetses, Greece.

Organs “talk” to each other during normal physiology and these mechanisms govern homeostasis of the organism. Such crosstalk also occurs in disease, where we observe that disease can “spread” from one organ to others. This is causing very significant morbidity and mortality, for example, in diabetes, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease or autoimmune disorders, and also in the COVID-19 related inflammatory syndrome. Recent advances have provided many new insights into the molecular mechanisms of organ crosstalk. Molecular mechanisms of this organ crosstalk are under intense investigation in recent years and novel findings have implicated the immune and nervous system, soluble circulating factors, the microbiome and metabolome, among others.

This FEBS Advanced Lecture Course will bring together leaders in the fields of interorgan crosstalk between the nervous system, immune system, kidney, lung, heart, gut, liver, fat, bone, blood and bone marrow. We will also consider effects of the microbiome, metabolome and host pathogen interactions. One unifying theme of the course will be immune responses to injury/infection, locally and systemically (remote injury). The FEBS Advanced Lecture Course represents a unique opportunity for investigators to participate in cross-disciplinary, multi-organ discussions in order to gain new insights into their research.

This FEBS Advanced Lecture Course features lectures, small group discussions and poster sessions, as well as small group tutorials under olive trees or on the beach at the beautiful Anargyrios and Korgialenios School of Spetses. In addition, it features very popular dinners in small groups with course faculty (“Dine with the PI”) in the town of Spetses. These opportunities for informal interaction with faculty, combined with the formal program, make up an exciting and inspiring atmosphere and provide a unique training and networking opportunity.

Andreas Herrlich, Francois Leulier, Eirini Kefalogianni
Course Organizers