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Seminar “New Trends in Infectious Diseases” 26-28 November 2008


Since the discovery of penicillin in the late 1930’s, a broad range of antibiotics has been developed that are today commonly used for the treatment of bacterial infections in humans and animals. As a result of these discoveries modern medicine has made great progress in treating and preventing infectious outbreaks. However, during the last few decades only a small number of new antibiotics have been released onto the market, while at the same time more and more bacterial infections have emerged that are not only drug-resistant, but also multi-drug resistant. With a fourfold increased world population since the initial discovery by Pasteur and Koch, the risk of pandemic outbreaks has also been multiplied.

The seminar “New trends in infectious diseases” took place in Lyon (France) under the label “EU-French Presidency 2008” and was co-organized by INSERM, ISTC and STCU.
The seminar was divided in 2 parts; a scientific seminar presented the main state-of-the-art results on some infectious diseases and one day was devoted to industrial matchmaking.
The objectives of the Seminar were:
  • To exhibit the capabilities, existing treatments and developments of science in the CIS in the field of drug discovery, in order to stimulate partnering/commercial activities with companies
  • To enhance the exchange of information between European and CIS scientists in order to address new emerging diseases. This is of essential importance given that many highly infectious diseases are endemic in various CIS countries (especially Central Asia)
  • To stimulate new ideas by bringing together scientists from different research backgrounds and cultures in order to generate new concepts and tackle the issue of drug-resistance in infectious diseases.

There were about 80 participants, including 15 from ISTC Institutes.


From the left: Jean-Francois Delfraissy, Director of the French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis, Jean-Louis Touraine, Deputy Mayor of Lyon, Andre Syrota, General Director to INSERM, Adriaan van der Meer, Executive Director to ISTC