Survival on the Danube. This slogan was chosen for the 13th Euroconference on Apoptosis in Budapest. The choice was motivated by several reasons. First, the city of Budapest situated at the cross-roads of ambitious nations has survived many wars and fierce battles during the centuries. Still, the spirit of people living here, the rich history, the art and cultural attractions has made the city one of the most charming and attractive capitals of Europe to visit. Second, ECDO and the Euroconference on Apoptosis have survived 13 years of existence; not only that, it prospers better than ever. The European apoptosis research community are all grateful to Michel Lanotte and Tom Cotter who started the Euroconferences organizing the first two in Paris and Kinsale and obtaining funds from the EU – with the help of the European Society of Hematology – also for the next four ones in Cuenca, Capri, Bingen and Stockholm. After these very successful conferences, ECDO had to proceed on its own resources, and with the efforts of our colleagues in Israel (Ein Geddi), Switzerland (Davos) Austria (Vienna) and France (Paris), we reached the 10th Euroconference. This was followed by the legal restructuring of ECDO and another successful EU application, bringing us to the Ghent and the Chania meetings and finally to Budapest. The rich series of apoptosis meetings clearly shows that apoptosis research has been very strong in Europe for the last 13 years, and we all are sure that it will be increasingly influential during the coming years. Third, perhaps it has never been so clear how much the pro- and antiapoptotic mechanisms are intertwined in cells. The same molecules might be involved in both the induction of the cell death and cell proliferation or survival, depending on the cell type or local milieu. As it was shown by a number of lectures and posters at the conference, the survival mechanisms in cells have recruited many of the biochemical systems, which have been originally selected for other purposes in diverse metabolic and signaling pathways, and in endocrine, neuronal or transcriptional regulation. Survival and death are two opposite fates of cells, often played out by the same molecular machinery of which more and more details have been revealed during the years covered by Apoptosis Euroconferences.
The 13th Euroconference on apoptosis, continuing the tradition initiated a year before, was preceded by a Training Course on ‘Concepts and Methods of Programmed Cell Death’. Similarly to last year, there was great interest in the training course; we hosted 150 participants, mostly Ph.D. students, but also young postdoctoral fellows, emphasizing the need of giving guiding talks to young scientists on various aspects of this rapidly developing scientific field. The training course aimed at coverage of model systems and methodological aspects of apoptosis. First, the animal experimental models were introduced with the focus of showing how these models helped us to understand the molecular programs of apoptosis. Then, the methods that can be used for apoptosis and cell death studies were summarized. Natalie Franc gave an excellent overview of the Ceanorhabolitis elegans and the Drosophila systems emphasizing how very important these animal systems were in proving the existence of cell death genes. Francesco Cecconi painted a nice picture about our present understanding of the genetic pathways that regulate cell death in the mouse as we understand them by integrating the transgenic and knockout as well as knock-in data. In the methodological part, Walter Malorni spoke about the importance and details of the morphological techniques, Marie-Lise Gougeon summarized how flow cytometry can be applied for analyzing apoptosis in mixed cell cultures, whereas Boris Zhivotovsky gave an excellent overview about the in vitro and in vivo biochemical techniques with the help of which we can detect cell death. Finally, Ian Dransfield reviewed methods for the detection of phagocytosis of apoptotic cells. For the first time, these lectures have been put on the ECDO website (www.dmbr.ugent.be/ecdo/) and can therefore be accessed by the young researchers as they need.
