46th Annual Scientific Meeting of the
European Society for Clinical Investigation

Budapest, Hungary
22 – 24 March 2012

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It is our great pleasure to invite you to join us at the 46th Annual Scientific Meeting of the European Society for Clinical Investigation (ESCI) which will take place between 22-24 March 2012 at the Danubius Health Spa Resort Margitsziget in Budapest, Hungary.

ESCI is an interdisciplinary association of clinicians and basic scientists across Europe working to integrate the different aspects of biomedical research from the bench to the bedside. The Annual Scientific Meeting is the major annual event of the Society and emphasizes its principles of bridging basic and clinical research. Accordingly, we expect that invited speakers and attendees will focus on their work aimed at understanding how our body functions in health and disease and attempting to exploit that knowledge to improve the diagnosis and therapy of human disease.

The meeting will be built around six major workshops on various aspects of biomedical science. Unlike in previous years with a larger number of shorter workshops, we decided to focus our attention to a few major subjects and to organize workshops that span the majority of the two and a half days of the meeting. Those workshops will be dedicated to the following subjects:

  • rheumatology
  • endocrinology
  • phagocyte biology
  • mitochondrial biology

In addition to the above workshops, we have invited a number of renowned scientists to give plenary talks on latest developments in biomedical research and the winners of the two ESCI Awards on Basic/Translational and Clinical Research (given to exceptional young European sdcientists) will also give their award talks at the meeting. Additional poster sessions on all aspects of biomedical research will also be held during the meeting. The abstracts submitted and accepted to the meeting will be published in a supplemental issue of the European Journal of Clinical Investigation.

The venue of the meeting is a four-star health and spa resort hotel located on a picturesque island (Margitsziget) on the Danube in the middle of Budapest. This will allow easy transportation to and from the Budapest airport, a major hub linking the capital of Hungary to all major cities in Europe. Margitsziget also has lots of parks and green, biking routes and a 5-km jogging path around the island, making it a major recreational destination within Budapest. We believe that that will provide a very nice and refreshing environment to discuss all aspects of science while physically separated from the busy life of the city of Budapest.

Budapest is also a city with thousands of years of history, dating its origin back to the Roman empire and being the cultural and historical center of Hungary for the last thousand years. If you wish to enjoy the historic, cultural, architectural and culinary heritage of the capital of Hungary, you will have ample opportunities to leave the island and enter the many museums, theaters, historic buildings, pubs and restaurants of Budapest. Taken together, we believe that the Margitsziget venue will allow you to enjoy all scientific and social aspects of attending an exciting international scientific conference.

We look forward to welcoming you all to Budapest in the middle of Central-Eastern Europe in the spring of 2012!

Attila Mócsai, MD, PhD
Department of Physiology
Semmelweis University School of Medicine

György Nagy, MD, PhD
Department of Rheumatology
Semmelweis University School of Medicine