Meeting report
Report of 3rd annual conference of Society of Inflammation Research
Jyotirmay Biswas1, M Balasubramanyam2, Nivedita Chatterjee3
Author Affiliations
1, 3 Department of Uveitis and Ocular Pathology, Vision Research Foundation, Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai, India
2Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Conran Smith Road, Gopalapuram Chennai, India
Correspondence: Dr. Jyotirmay Biswas
IJIR. 2020;(4)1:R1
Submitted: 30 January 2020, Published: 11 February 2020
© IJIR
Abstract
A report on the 3rd conference of the Society of Inflammation Research- SIRCON 2019 held at Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai on 12th to 13th October 2019.
Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai, was honored and privileged to serve the Society of Inflammation Research (SIR) by hosting the 3rd Annual Conference of Society of Inflammation Research, SIRCON 2019 on 12th to 13th October 2019. The excellent support given by the event management, multimedia and information technology teams of the Sankara Nethralaya and funds received from various agencies helped in making the event a grand success.
The 3rd annual conference brought together eminent speakers, and other participants from a wide range of disciplines. The participants were a blend of healthcare professionals, academicians, researchers in basic science and media professionals.
Inflammatory components associated with several non-communicable diseases including the lifestyle diseases incur significant secondary damages. The main theme of the conference was bringing to light the advances in the clinical and basic research related to inflammation. Over the two days of the meet, there were debates, discussions and deliberations on various aspects of inflammation.
The pre-conference CME courses conducted on the first day was mainly focused on training of ophthalmic fellows with the topic of deliberation being “What’s new in the Ocular Inflammation and Infection”. The session briefly covered the topics of importance to the beginners in both basic sciences and ophthalmology. Twenty-five talks on recent advances in ocular inflammation including corneal and scleral infections as well as endophthalmitis were presented. An overwhelming number of 178 delegates participated for this session.
The second general CME course in the afternoon of the first day was on “Planning inflammation and autoimmune diseases research”. This consisted of 7 talks by eminent immunologists and medical consultants. There was healthy interaction by the delegates in this session. The executive committee meeting of SIR was held on 12th October, the first day evening.
The second day, 13th October, witnessed the participation of 135 delegates for Conference of Society of Inflammation Research, SIRCON 2019. The conference started with the first session in the morning on the topic of “Changing Concepts in Inflammation- Bench to Bedside” with 6 interesting talks by eminent researchers and health professionals.
The formal inauguration of the conference was done by Padmashree Dr. V Mohan, Chairman of Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre and President of Madras Diabetes Research Foundation. Dr. Mohan is a world-renowned expert on diabetes mellitus and a pioneer in both research and treatment for diabetes. In his scintillating talk, he emphasized the importance of documenting clinical parameters and need of conducting basic research. His inaugural speech covered a vast spectrum of inflammation in diabetes.
This was followed by SIRCON Oration, delivered by Dr. Debashish Danda, Professor and Head of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, Christian Medical College, Vellore. He highlighted the mechanisms of immune-mediated changes in collagen diseases.
Second session of the conference was on the topic of ‘Basic research in clinical inflammation’ with 6 talks by different researchers and practicing health professionals from India.
The third session of the conference was on the theme of ‘Basic research in autoimmunity’ with 3 eminent researchers deliberating on different aspects of their research fields. The conference also included the presentation of 4 free papers, 4 rapid fire poster presentations and another 12 poster presentations.
In the concluding part of the
conference, the organizing team thanked all the guests, speakers, chairperson
and the judges for evaluating the posters and free papers, etc. and also the
delegates and invitees for the conference. The organizing team presented two
travel awards, one best free paper award and one best poster award worth Rs.
5000/- each.
The SIRCON 2019 including the Pre-conference CME was well received and the different media in Chennai reported on these scientific activities.
SIRCON 2019 concluded with the General Body Meeting of SIR with the adoption of following resolutions:
1. The existing office bearers to continue for the next 2 years term of 2019-2021.
2. SIRCON 2020 to be held at Pune.