(Communicated by the Weizmann Institute Spokesperson)
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, have joined forces in the fight against inflammatory diseases and cancer. In 2014, during the first joint conference held in Dublin, an agreement was signed between the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI) and the Weizmann Institute with the aim of promoting cooperation between them, including the basis for the exchange of students and of visiting scientists. The 2nd Joint Symposium is being held this week in Israel, and the Weizmann Institute’s Department of Immunology will be hosting several visiting students from TBSI.
Among this year’s keynote speakers are 2006 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Prof. Roger Kornberg of Stanford University School of Medicine; Prof. Richard Flavell, President of the International Cytokine and Interferon Society, Yale School of Medicine; and Weizmann Institute’s Prof. Zelig Eshhar, 2015 winner of the Israel Prize in Life Sciences Research. Prof. Patrick Prendergast, Provost of Trinity College Dublin, will be delivering the welcoming address.
During the symposium, scientists from both institutes, as well as the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, will present cutting-edge progress in the study of the molecular interactions that contribute to innate and adaptive immunity, toward understanding how our body responds to infection and injury, as well as the structural basis for these interactions, which can provide the basis for the design of new drugs to fight infections, autoimmune diseases and cancer. These subjects of research are intensely explored both at TBSI and at the Weizmann Institute – two of the world’s leading research institutes in the field of biomedicine.
“Scientists in Israel and Ireland have a lot in common. Joining hands in exploring the secrets of nature and in developing drugs against severe diseases is our best way to contribute to this region and to the rest of the world,” says Weizmann Institute’s Prof. David Wallach, who initiated and organized the yearly conferences, together with Prof. Luke O’Neill from TBSI, and with Weizmann Institute’s Prof. Idit Shachar and Prof. Yossi Yarden. O’Neill: “The whole beauty of science is collaboration… The key long term goal is to get students engaged in collaborations and translational research in order to enhance the whole science agenda.”
Last year’s dignitaries included Prof. Bruce Beutler, 2011 Nobel Laureate in Physiology and Medicine, University of Texas; Prof. Aaron Ciechanover, 2004 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology; Prof. Sir. Marc Feldmann, 2003 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research, University of Oxford, England; Prof. Jules Hoffmann, 2011 Nobel Laureate in Physiology and Medicine, Institut de Biologie Moleculaire, et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France; Prof. James Watson, 1962 Noble Prize in Physiology and Medicine, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York; and Prof. Ada Yonath, 2009 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.