International Medical Services
Outreach and Dissemination
Press
In January 2013, the SWR Landesschau (a daily German news television programme) broadcast a report introducing the NeuroKine project and featuring an interview with Coordinator Ari Waisman.
Newspaper articles about the project consortium appeared in January 2013 in the Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz, Ärzte Zeitung, Rhein-Main-Zeitung Frankfurt and the FAZ.
Hans Lassmann (University of Vienna partner) has made many media appearences on the Austrian Television Network (ORF) and in newspapers including the Austrian publication “Der Standard”, where he was interviewed about his research achievements, and also by the Austrian Press Agency (APA). The Lancet Neurology also published a scientific portrait of him. In 2015, he was listed as one of the most cited researchers in Austria.
An ÄND interview with Frank Heppner (Pdf 
, 39,2 KB) relating to the annual DGNN meeting held in Berlin (see Events below) was published in September 2015.
Teaching activities
Germany
The Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI) of the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz offers an annual summer school for school students to introduce them to scientific work in biology, biomedicine and medicine. The Department of Neuropathology offers the possibility of an internship (mandatory for 9th/10th grade pupils) for natural sciences students interested in our research topics. Students of human medicine are given lectures, seminars and workshops in Neuropathology every semester.
The Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin participates in “The Long Night of Sciences”, which takes place every year in May or June and is open for interested visitors of any age. There is the opportunity to listen to lectures, get information about a variety of scientific subjects and attend workshops given by scientists and physicians of the different clinics and departments.
In 2014, the Departments of Neuropathology and Pathology and the Charité Comprehensive Cancer Center took part in “Pathology today: from organ to cell with microscope and computer”, which offered insights into the interdisciplinary work, current research projects, workplaces and the study of illustrative cases under the microscope.
In February 2016, a group of high school students from Carl-Bosch-Gymnasium Ludwigshafen toured the facilities of the University Medical Center Mainz Partner, meeting with Ari Waisman (NeuroKine Coordinator) and attending project presentations from the Mainz NeuroKine fellows (photograph above).
The Netherlands
The Department of Immunology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam holds an annual IMC Weekend school to groups of approximately 25 children from deprived Rotterdam neighbourhoods between 10-12 years of age. As part of their wider curriculum, the children spend a full Sunday attending a lecture on immunology and infection and taking part in hands-on experiments.
Jon Laman (University Medical Center Groningen partner) offers teaching of advanced immunology to 50 residents of Neurology from the Netherlands.
Austria
The Center for Brain Research at the Medical University of Vienna, holds a week-long “Brain Awareness Week” that takes place annually in March. It offers a variety of lectures and workshops that provide fascinating insights into subjects such as brain development, multiple sclerosis, consciousness, pain and addiction for both teachers and school students.
Other
Teaching events such as workshops set up for the NeuroKine fellows also offer restricted places for up to 10 external researchers who have so far attended workshops in Basel, Mainz and Vienna.
Events
The 12th International Congress of Neuroimmunology (ISNI) took place in Mainz, Germany (9-13 November, 2014) with Martino Gianvito (San Raffaele Hospital partner) as President of ISNI, Ari Waisman (University Medical Center Mainz partner) as Conference Chair and most of the other partners involved as speakers/committee members. The NeuroKine fellows took part in poster sessions.
At the Keystone Symposium about Neuroinflammation in Diseases of the CNS in Taos, New Mexico (January 25-30, 2015), Miltenyi fellow Hui Zhang presented a poster, “Characterization of the cytokine secretion profile of highly purified, activated astrocytes”.
In June 2014, the 2nd International SFB TRR 43 Symposium took place in Werder/Potsdam with international leaders in the field of neuroimmunology. The symposium served as a platform to discuss emerging neuroimmunological topics of various flavours accompanied by presentations of the on-going SFB TRR43 projects.
The annual meeting of the German Society for Neuropathology and Neuroanatomy (DGNN) (Pdf , 5,2 MB) took place at Charité Berlin in August 2015.
In 2015, Vienna Partner Hans Lassmann gave incited lectures at the 4th Annual Congress of Immunology (ECI 2015) in Vienna, the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) Meeting in Greece; the 15th European Society of of Neuroimmunology (ESNI) Course in Prague; the NETSCAPE Program in Multiple Sclerosis Meeting in Paris; and the 9th World Congress on Controversies in Neurology (CONY), Budapest. Vienna Fellow Joana Maria Machado Dos Santos presented posters at the 4th Annual Congress of Immunology and the International Brain Research Organization 9th World Congress in Rio de Janeiro, to attend which she was awarded the IBRO/PERC/FENS World Travel Grant.
Boards
Ari Waisman (University Medical Center Mainz partner and NeuroKine Coordinator) currently holds the following positions:
Associate Editor BMC Immunology; Editorial Board member of Frontiers in Immunological Tolerance; Editor, PLoS One; Steering Committee member, SFB/TRR 128; elected member of the International Advisory Board of the International Society of Neuroimmunology (ISNI); member of the Advisory Board of Novartis on the role of IL-17A linking psoriasis with cardiovascular diseases; co-president of the annual meeting of the German Society for Immunology (Mainz); member of the Editorial Board, Acta Neuropathologica (Since 01/2014); Co-President of the bi-annual meeting of the International Society of Neuroimmunology (Mainz, 11/2014). He also acts as referee for international scientific journals (Nature Immunology, Nature Medicine, Immunity, JEM, JCI, EJI, JI etc)
Burkhard Becher (University of Zurich partner) is a member of the scientific advisory board of the International Society of Neuroimmunology (ISNI) and of the scientific advisory board of the Swiss MS Society
Frank Heppner (Charité Berlin partner) is in the Ad hoc committee of the German Society for Neuropathology and Neuroanatomy (DGNN) for the 60th annual meeting of the Society in 2015 (http://www.dgnn-conference.de/) and spokesperson and member of the execute board of the Transregional collaborative research center SFB TRR 43 “The brain as a target of inflammatory processes”
Martino Gianvito (San Raffaele Hospital partner) was President of the International Society of Neuroimmunology (ISNI)
Jon Laman (University Medical Center Groningen partner) has been a member ad hoc committee of the Dutch Society for Immunology - History of the NVVI, for the 50th anniversary of the Society in 2014 (www.nvvi.nl).
He is also a member of the MRace ad hoc committee on Science in Transition initiative (2013 onward, scienceintransition.nl) for symposium March 19th 2014, which laid out new policy directions in view of concerns on the organization of the biomedical enterprise internationally (Alberts et al., PNAS USA 2014) and in the Netherlands.
He is on the editorial board of 'Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health' (EMPH). Editor-in-Chief Dr. Stephen Stearns, Yale University, New Haven, CT. (2011-present); a member of MRace ad hoc committee on Open Access publishing (spring 2014); Vice Chair of Mrace as of May 2010 (Mrace: Medical Research Advisory Committee Erasmus advising the Dean on research policy issues); a member of Mrace Research advisory board Erasmus MC (2007-2014) and Vice Chair of the Board 2-year Master Infection and Immunity (2013-2014)
Patents
European and US Patent application by Andreas Bosio and Melanie Jungblut (Miltenyi Biotec GmbH partner) for the subject, “Separation of living untouched neurons”.