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EFIS is welcoming Immunologists to build even more bridges in Amsterdam

2018; Wiley; Volume: 48; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/eji.201870075

1521-4141

S. Marieke van Ham, Eric A. Reits, Christina Helbig, Janneke N. Samsom, Jacques Neefjes,

Mycobacterium research and diagnosis

The 5th European Congress of Immunology (ECI) will take place in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from September 2–5, 2018. The ECI is organized on a triennial basis under the auspices of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS), and co-organised with the national society hosting the congress, in this case the Dutch Society for Immunology (DSI). Presently, worldwide inclinations towards decentralization, individualization and barrier-building are visible. In the everlasting cycle of joining and parting, the current trend of dispersal is clear. Immunology is one of the pre-eminent fields where international collaboration and exchange of novel ideas and findings are crucial to drive forward the field and its applications. To emphasize this, the theme of the 5th ECI is ‘Building Bridges’. This theme is in perfect alignment with Amsterdam, which is a city of bridges. Bridges are built to connect different neighbourhoods and cultures and they play a reminder of the long history of Amsterdam that can still be appreciated when visiting the city; for an immunological view of Amsterdam see Figure 1. It is a history that includes Dutch scientists being scooped, having to fight for funding and recognition, having to spend funding on scientific publishing, and continuously having to innovate scientific methodology. The history of Amsterdam shows a marked similarity to today's immunology research with some potential lessons as are described below. It illustrates that Amsterdam and the Netherlands have always been tightly connected to Europe and the World, bringing it new insights, the Golden 17th century and more, and this shaped the Netherlands as you will experience it. Welcome to Amsterdam. ‘Draining the swamp’ was a key activity at the time the city of Amsterdam was founded around 1200 AD, simply because there was no alternative. Amsterdam expanded from a fishing village to a small town surrounded by soaked peat 1. Water control was critical and the resulting investments stimulated innovation… as well as dry feet! These innovations were not by design but involved considerable amounts of trial and error. The results are still visible in and around the city, with windmills to remove water, locks to control water and the Huddestenen to measure the height of water. This resembles today's science, which demands investments in order to inspire innovation and necessary measures to solve problems that arise. Around 1500, Amsterdam began to expand. The settling of immigrants from various nationalities was an especially important factor in the city's development. The Jordaan area of Amsterdam was a site where a mixture of all European languages rather than only the Dutch language were heard; sort of mini-EU. This immigration of Europeans continued into the reformation when Amsterdam (was forced to) switched from Catholicism to Protestantism around 1600. Jewish settlers from Spain and Portugal, Huguenots from France, and independent thinkers, like Descartes, found shelter in Amsterdam and other cities in the Netherlands. There was no state control and – as long as the status quo on issues like religion and state were not challenged – people could do and think as they wished. Although sometimes this could have repercussions. Spinoza 2 had ideas that did not fit his Jewish Sephardic community. He was excommunicated because of ‘horrible heresies and monsterly acts’… But he was not prosecuted by the state and could continue developing his ideas (for his safety he published his, at the time controversial, most famous book, Ethica only after his death but nonetheless it was published in the Netherlands). Overall, this illustrates an important Dutch trait; the state should not dictate the development and discourse of ideas. Although printing was not discovered in the Netherlands (originally in Korea and later in Germany), the fact that there was no state control on book content (unless blasphemy was in it) allowed everyone to publish his or her books in the Netherlands. Galileo Galilei's book Dialogo Systema Cosmicum (Latin version of 1635) could only be published by a small publisher called Elsevier located in the university town of Leiden. Furthermore, books about the discoveries and findings of the sailors that first visited Japan, China, Korea, Brasil, and other countries around the world, descriptions of nature in the tropics and much more, were printed and sold in the Netherlands. The Dutch education system improved and many wanted to read about the world, new ideas, and inventions. Yet, the funding system was much less developed. Dutch citizens active in scientific discoveries were not trained, but thrived simply because they were curious. Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) 3, living in Delft, was intrigued by everything he could see through his (home-made) microscope and subsequently described everything. He looked at sperm to see it moving, he took contaminated water (easy to find) to detect and define small moving objects, the bacteria, and he also described blood circulation. Although Descartes (1596–1650) 4 did not live too far away from him (in Amsterdam and Leiden), van Leeuwenhoek did not use a scientific method but merely described what he saw. He became well known for this and many foreigners (Tsar Peter the Great for example) visited him to discuss his findings (and also tried to get one of his microscopes). Van Leeuwenhoek sent his reports for publication in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in London, which was one of the first scientific academies where scientific findings were discussed. The curiosity of Van Leeuwenhoek was unlimited and luckily he was sufficiently wealthy to support his own science. However, many scientists had to fight for financial support. Jan Swammerdam (1637–1680) 5, in Amsterdam, also used the microscope to discover red blood cells, nerves in the bone marrow, and more. National science organizations that invested in science on behalf of society did not exist at that time (everything had to be translated into economical profit immediately, especially for trade and warfare) and Swammerdam had to beg for support for his livelihood, chemicals (for fixation of tissues; an art at that time) and printing of his books, which were paid for by rich donors. These donors were then acknowledged in the books (a bit more extensively than modern acknowledgements as they had to contain substantial flattery). Ruysch (1638–1731) 6 was another anatomist who discovered, in Amsterdam, the valves in the lymphoid system. He earned his income by teaching (including training all midwives of Amsterdam) and preparing organs (with a secret fixation mix) for research and display. He was communicating extensively with Tsar Peter the Great, who bought his collection, which is still on display in St Petersburg. Yet the life of many scientists was not too different from that of scientists today with international scientific networks (the world was smaller and it was mainly Europe based), scientific findings that were not always appreciated, a struggle for financial support and there was always a chance of being scooped. We will give some examples below. Printing of books was very expensive and they then had to be sold. There was no copyright law and successful books were easily copied without financial compensation. Generally, there was no peer review prior to publication, only post-publication review through discussions and opinionated or fair publications of colleagues. It is likely that many observations would not have been published with today's peer review systems. The Leiden-based printing company Elsevier barely survived until the early 1970s when it was transformed into a modern scientific publishing company with scientists generating publications, performing peer review, paying for open access, and scientific organizations paying for journal subscriptions. Scientific publishing has become a big business (Fig. 2). Many publishers give profit to their shareholders. Fortunately, other journals like this journal (the European Journal of Immunology, EJI) differ and invest to support science and education in immunology. EJI invests into European Immunology by supporting EFIS, the ECI and other meetings and by providing travel grants for the ECI 7. Scientists are human beings with all their limitations. Gerard Blaes (1625–1692) 5 was lecturer in Medicine at the Athenaeum Illustre of Amsterdam. This was not a university because the University of Leiden made sure that Amsterdam was not granted the right to provide doctorates. Only in 1877 was Amsterdam granted its university. A Danish student of Blaes (Niels Stensen (1638–1686)) discovered the parotid, but Blaes published it under his own name only. Furthermore, in 1666, Blaes published a book on the spinal cord under his name with both text and drawings from Jan Swammerdam! There was no regulation on scientific misconduct, other than the discussions amongst colleagues and the anger of the actual inventors. While Blaes now has his name connected with scientific misconduct and stealing of ideas and results, this same behaviour remains difficult to correct in the current more open society, even with alerting platforms like ‘retraction watch’. The question is ultimately simple; why do science? Certainly not to copy and steal the work of colleagues. Being scooped is obviously a very frustrating experience in science. Hugo de Vries (1848–1935) 8 was, at around the turn of the 19th century, perhaps the most prominent biologist, working as the first professor of plant physiology in the Amsterdam Hortus. He postulated that mutations had a role in evolution and also described the possibility of chromosomal cross-overs and homologous recombination. This was not in the context of the immune system but rather in plants. However, he is best known for his rediscovery of the hereditary laws (there is even a dispute on who rediscovered this), finding out that the laws had been described by Mendel some 40 years earlier in a rather obscure publication (Fig. 3). For that reason, these are called Mendelian laws and de Vries is forgotten by most (even Dutch!) scientists. Life in science can be unfair. However, the arrival of search engines, like Google and PubMed, definitively help to find these earlier publications to avoid unnecessary duplication. Sometimes a lack of funding can be helpful. The Netherlands and Amsterdam were very poor in the 19th century. While London, Paris, Milan, Brussels and many other cities started major renewal programs to restructure the cities and thus destroyed their old town, this was financially impossible in the Netherlands. As the Dutch history writer Geert Mak stated, ‘poverty saved Amsterdam’ and many other towns in the Netherlands 1. These towns even escaped new insights in city planning in the 1960s. There were plans to transform the canals into roads and to destroy the old parts of the city, such as the Jordaan area, and replace these with new townships! We all realize the beauty of the towns erected in the 1960s, but the current city of Amsterdam is considerably more cosy, personal and beautiful. It would have been a historical mistake. Scientific funding is different though. To some extent, the goal of science is to question dogma and replace that with new insights i.e. not to maintain old structures but to challenge these! Funding, especially for young scientists, is pertinent for the success and future of all scientific fields. Immunology research, with its many consequences for host defence against diseases and the rising incidence of autoimmunity and cancer, is an especially excellent field for scientific investment. The new insights can be translated in the control of human diseases and will foster economic development at the same time. European exchange of thoughts and science has been around since the beginning of Christian times. The Netherlands became part of this rather slowly with Erasmus of Rotterdam (∼1466–1536) as one of the first representatives. Erasmus had many contacts with German, English, French, and other European Christian philosophers and Humanists through correspondence and by direct visits. Hence the EU Erasmus program is named appropriately as it aims to support European scientific and cultural exchange. Herman Boerhaave (1669–1738) in Leiden modernized Western medicine by emphasizing clinical observations 9. He also knew Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), who got his PhD in the Dutch university of Harderwyck (which was a very low cost university that was later closed by Napoleon Bonaparte because of the fact that doctorates could be bought). Already at that time, women participated in science. Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) was born in Germany and studied insects in their natural habitat. She made beautiful and detailed drawings to further science and also as a way of making a living. She described the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly, which was against the dogma at that time. Maria went with her daughters to Amsterdam and later to Suriname where she continued her science and started start a shop to sell her drawings, making her a good example of an early biomedical entrepreneur. Obviously, many other scientists visited the Netherlands, but many also went abroad to further develop their ideas and technologies. Christian Huygens (1629–1695) 10 not only described the wave behaviour of light, the rings of Saturn, but also formulated the first mathematical formula in physics. He became the second chairman of the French Academy of Sciences (until Louis XIV declared war on the Netherlands in 1681). In return, a Frenchman was important for Dutch science. He was in fact the first king of the Netherlands; Luigi Napoleone Buonaparte (1778–1846), the brother of the French emperor Napoleon 11. He made Amsterdam the capital of the Netherlands and the Amsterdam City Hall the new Royal Palace. In addition, he founded the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts (KNAW) with the aim to revitalize the economy of the Netherlands. These and many other interactions between the Netherlands and European countries shape science and immunology to this day. Immunology in the Netherlands is booming. Immunology in Holland was founded by important scientists like van Loghem (1914–2005), van Bekkum (1925–2015), and van Rood (1926–2017) (‘van’ means ‘of’ and they are not family). Van Lochem was critical for blood transfusion and discovered various blood groups. Van Bekkum pioneered bone marrow transplantations in leukemia. Van Rood was one of the discoverers of transplantation antigens (the now called HLA molecules) and founded Eurotransplant. This illustrates the type of research in the 1970s. This work was expanded by Melief, Ploegh, van Lier, Figdor, Spits, and many others that supplied the molecular basis for these original observations and expanded on those in a variety of fields not anticipated by the three ‘van’ founders of Dutch Immunology. This has resulted in a thriving and vibrant Dutch Immunology society assembled in the Dutch Immunology Society (NVVI), which has around 1340 members and is the largest scientific society in the Netherlands. While European collaboration in the fields of immunology existed before the EU was founded (initiatives such as Eurotransplant for optimal transnational organ typing and donation in 1967), the national institutes were active within the boundaries of their respective countries. In 1975 the European Foundation of Immunological Societies (EFIS) was founded (in Amsterdam!). EFIS represents 33 different immunological societies and thus unites nearly 13,000 individual researchers and clinicians working in the field of immunology. EFIS aims to foster scientific interactions between its members and other immunological societies. This goal is further supported by its associated journals, EJI and Immunology Letters. EFIS is supporting immunologists with fellowships and the Immunological community by facilitating meetings, such as the European Congress of Immunology held this year in Amsterdam, September 2–5. In the year of an ECI the national immunology societies member of the EEIG have agreed to skip their individual annual meeting and to join efforts to build an ECI that connects people with a professional interest in immunology throughout Europe and across the globe. Indeed, this ECI is organized by more than 15 European Immunology Societies that actively take part in the scientific program and steering committees and meet on a regular basis. Since the first meeting in Paris in 2006, the ECI meetings have attracted large numbers of participants and to date form premier immunology meetings. In the spirit of Europe, bridges will be built across various scientific fields within Europe, uniting us through our excitement to further discover and advance the field of immunology. Scientists can walk these bridges to communicate and exchange ideas. The European Congress of Immunology will encourage this not only by introducing discussion meetings on hot topics, but also by organizing hands-on sessions on timely topics like ‘what to do with big data’ and ‘how to model systems in Immunology’. Upcoming and experienced immunologists can be trained during these sessions. This will help to educate a new generation of immunologists to combine experimental research with in silico data analyses, yielding new leads for follow-up experimental research. The meeting will also provide time and space to interact and discuss the former and current state of Immunology and thus shape the future of Immunology! As has always been tradition in the history of the Netherlands; discussions free of dogma should be stimulated to expand the field of immunology beyond the current state. Many young group leaders have been invited to present their latest data and thoughts. An important contribution of young scientists to this meeting is to spread new ideas that also challenge dogma (a critical issue in any scientific field). This defines a vibrant field. The European Congress of Immunology in Amsterdam this year will contribute to that spirit. We are very much looking forward to welcoming you to Amsterdam in September! For more information about the 5th European Congress of Immunology please visit our website www.eci2018.org. Amsterdam awaits you!