5th EuropEan MolEcular IMagIng MEEtIng - ESMI

8
WarSaW, poland May 26 – 29, 2010
Welcome to the 5 th EMIM in Warsaw, Poland
Dear Colleagues,
on behalf of the ESMI as well as the other organising and contributing societies and networks it is our great pleasure
to welcome you to Warsaw, Poland, for the 5 th European Molecular Imaging Meeting. EMIM 2010 brings together top
European scientists from 3 societies, 2 European Networks of Excellence (NoEs) and 2 COST actions. With great honour
we may state that your fellow attendees represent not only colleagues from all over Europe, but also Asia and the US.
The societies and networks with primary responsibility for organising the meeting are:
• European Society for Molecular Imaging – ESMI
• NoE Diagnostic Molecular Imaging – DiMI
• European Cooperation in Science and Technology – COST Actions D38 and BM0607
• European Society of Radiology – ESR
• We also gratefully acknowledge the contribution from the following participating organisations:
• European Association of Nuclear Medicine – EANM
• NoE Clinical Gene Transfer and Therapy – Clinigene
All these organisations were working together, with input from a scientifically complementary scientific steering committee,
to develop a strong scientific programme which integrates developments in imaging technologies and molecular
imaging agents with applications for drug development, basic science investigations, and clinical translation with special
emphasis in the main disease burdens of our society such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurodegeneration.
We developed the 5 th EMIM scientific programme primarily on the outstanding strength of submitted abstracts.
About 150 abstracts were submitted, reviewed and scored. Then, each of the concurrent session co-chairs reviewed
the scored abstracts which were considered relevant to their particular sessions. Session co-chairs selected abstracts
for oral presentation based on average abstract score, session content and structure. Attention was also paid to diversity
of disciplines and geographical distribution. From this effort 39 abstracts were integrated into the Parallel as
well as Plenary Sessions that bring attendees from different disciplines together for a comprehensive examination of
the role of molecular imaging in particular biomedical problems. 21 of these oral abstract presentations will be held
by Young Investigator Award (YIA) applicants. The YIA selection committee is going to select the best 3 YIA presentations
to be held again during the final Plenary Session on Saturday where then THE Young Investigator Awardee
will be announced. Furthermore, special attention has been put on seven guided poster walks which have been
scheduled on Thursday and Friday afternoon with no other competing sessions in order to enhance the knowledge
exchange of experienced and young researchers. Each of the guided poster walks will be chaired by two chairs and will
result in one poster award. The seven Poster Awards will also be offered during the Closing Ceremony on Saturday.
We are especially proud and thankful that Prof. Dr. Christopher Contag will give the inaugural lecture,
entitled, “Point-of-care microscopy: molecular imaging with cellular resolution”. In addition, we have planned 5 exciting
plenary lectures, covering topics on probe design, systems biology, cancer, neuroinflammation, and atherosclerosis.
Furthermore, we have dedicated one Plenary Session each to Excellent, Late Breaking, and YIA Abstracts as
well as to Current Contribution of Imaging Technologies to Drug Development.
We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the support of this year’s sponsors of the conference, especially
recognizing the continued interest and support from DG Research of the European Commission. Moreover
we would like to thank YOU for participating in this year’s EMIM and making it possible by your attendance. We
hope you will enjoy the conference. If this is not your first time attending an EMIM conference then welcome back
and we hope you will establish new contacts and continue to expand your network of scientific excellence. Please
help first-time attendees to meet others and generally make people feel at home. Regardless whether this is your
first time with us or not we will endeavour to have you come back again in the future.
As in previous years our intention is that this high-level meeting will foster the coherence of a sustainable European
Molecular Imaging Community with the common goal to translate fundamental research discoveries into medical
application and health benefit for the European Society.
Sincerely,
The 5th Andreas H. Jacobs, ESMI President
Renata Mikołajczak, Local Organiser
Clemens W.G.M. Löwik, ESMI Vice President
Bertrand Tavitian, ESMI Past President
Silvio Aime, ESMI Secretary
European Molecular Imaging Meeting Executive Committee
Simone Mergui, ESMI Treasurer
imaging life