On 20-21 May 2022, CeMM hosted the Scientific Anniversary Symposium on the occasion of the 15^th anniversary of our institute. The conference on “Molecular medicine from signal transduction to societal impact: A journey through challenging territories” included an exciting line-up of renowned speakers working in the field of molecular biology across Europe and overseas. During the two-day event, 300 participants from the international scientific community, academia, industry, CeMM Faculty, colleagues and alumni, as well as other partner institutes and collaborators gathered at the House of Industry to discuss science, the development of new medical treatments and its impact on healthcare and society.

On the first day, MedUni Vienna Rector Markus Müller delivered the welcome address and congratulated CeMM Director Giulio Superti-Furga on his achievements, calling CeMM “an art form of itself”. Giulio Superti-Furga spoke a few introductory words and used the opportunity to thank important mentors, companions and colleagues for their support and for joining the event. Then the first session on “Decoding signals” kicked off with keynote speaker Tony Hunter, American Cancer Society Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (La Jolla, USA). During his presentation, Tony Hunter talked about histidine phosphorylation, a new prospect cancer target that could play a key role in the development of future medical therapies.
 
We hosted three additional sessions on understanding networks, harnessing proteostasis and drug development, and welcomed speakers from both, academia and industry. At the end of the afternoon, the guests came together in a cocktail reception and took the opportunity to interact, network, and discuss the scientific highlights as well as possible new collaborations in their research field.

On the second day, the program included four sessions with a focus on the societal aspects of research, with an outlook on how to create impact, and help patients, and highlighting what it takes to create context in challenging times such as a pandemic or the war.

Heinz Faßmann, President-elect of the Austrian Academy of Sciences delivered supportive and encouraging words about the future of CeMM, and the conference finished with the concluding remarks by CeMM Directors Giulio Superti-Furga and Anita Ender. Afterwards, participants joined a gala dinner in the stunning Palais Ferstel in the first district of Vienna. We are especially grateful to CeMM SAB Chair Carl-Henrik Heldin, who accompanied CeMM and its development from the very beginning, and livened up the evening with a very motivating dinner speech.

We would like to thank all speakers, participants, former and current CeMMies who joined us on this conference on the occasion of our institute's 15th anniversary and the 60th birthday of our Scientific Director. We are grateful for your engagement and for making it an extremely successful and pleasant event, packed with research highlights, great memories, new ideas and fruitful discussions!

Please check the picture gallery here.