On 22 May, the 8th Annual Symposium of the Amsterdam Institute for Immunology and Infectious Diseases (AI&I) was held at the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam, bringing together researchers to explore the future of medicine with a focus on personalized and synthetic medicine.

The day began with an opening talk from Prof. Joppe Hovius, AI&I Director, who reflected on the institute’s key achievements in 2024. The morning plenary session themed personalized medicine:

  • Prof. Anke-Hilse Maitland-van der Zee discussed prognostic biomarkers and precision medicine in respiratory care.

  • Dr. Katja Wolthers presented her work on personalizing antiviral testing for immunocompromised patients using human disease models.

The afternoon programme kicked off with a valorization workshop hosted by Innovation Exchange Amsterdam (IXA), followed by an engaging poster session with over 68 posters and 12 oral presentations from PhDs and postdocs, held across two parallel sessions of Immunology and Infectious Diseases.

The closing plenary session explored advances in Synthetic Biology:

  • Prof. Marjolein van Egmond and Dr. Maria Themeli showcased promising developments in antibody- and cell-based engineering to enhance cancer immunotherapy.

The symposium concluded with an award ceremony, recognizing outstanding contributions across several categories:

Best oral presentations

  • Infectious Diseases: Philip Elders – TICK ME: The uninfected Ixodes scapularis human tick challenge model
  • Immunology: Ricky Siebeler – Endogenous retroviral elements as central regulators in macrophage activation

Best poster

  • Nia Hudson – Lymph-noted neutrophils in inflammatory arthritis: the missing link between innate and adaptive autoimmunity

Other awards

  • In addition, a Valorization Prize from IXA was awarded and 30 lucky attendees received a BioRender subscription to support their scientific communication efforts.

The evening wrapped up with a relaxed dinner at A Beautiful Mess, offering a moment to connect and reflect.

A special thank you to the organizing committee:

Derk Amsen, Henk Schallig, Adithya Sridhar, Brenda Raud, Tanja de Gruijl, Alsya Affandi, Merve Kocyigit, Tine Sibbing, Judith Lubbers-Glim, and Yvonne Duiker — your efforts made this event a great success.