As the current H5N8 outbreak in wild birds (as of November 2016) shows, influenza still remains a current concern. For prevention and control of outbreaks, the understanding of viral mechanisms, host-pathogen interactions and immunological pathways is essential. It was the aim of the 5th International Influenza Meeting to bring together experts from all over the world to discuss and exchange the most recent research results in an international environment and to create new collaborations.
The meeting took place at the University of Muenster and was opened by Stephan Ludwig (University of Muenster, Germany), the coordinator of the research network FluResearchNet. About 200 researchers from 18 countries participated in the 5th International Influenza Meeting.
The opening lecture was given by Adolfo Garcia-Sastre (New York, USA), who talked about new insights in influenza virus-host interactions. Jeffrey Weiser (New York, USA) opened the first session “Virus and bacterial coinfection” with his keynote lecture entitled “New perspectives on the synergy between influenza and the pneumococcus”. Further sessions about “Adaptive immunity”, “Innate immunity”, “Viral replication”, “Vaccines and antivirals”, “Pathogenesis” and “Virus host cell interaction” were opened inter alia by the invited speakers Kanta Subbarao (Bethesda, USA), Thijs Kuiken (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) and Andrew Mehle (Wisconsin, USA). Within the sessions, researchers presented the most recent results – an interesting mixture between overviews and current research aspects, which offered an opportunity for scientific discussions.
The sessions were accompanied by poster presentations - about 60 scientists presented their work.
We are looking forward to the 6th International Influenza Meeting on September 2 - 4, 2018.