On September 29, the MI3 - Mannheim Institute of Innate Immunoscience - invited to a top-class kick-off symposium in the "Alte Brauerei" in Mannheim. On the following day, the MI3 scientists met again for a retreat to discuss their research.

At the start of the kick-off event, Professor Dr. Adelheid Cerwenka, the Managing Director of MI3, introduced the institute, which was founded three years ago in the cross-sectional area of inflammation medicine, immunology and immunotherapies at the Mannheim Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University. MI3 stands for innovative immunological research with a focus on innate immunity. In close connection with the four research foci of the Medical Faculty and clinical foci of the University Hospital Mannheim, MI3 investigates the reactivity and function of innate immune cells in cancer, inflammation and infectious diseases.

With Professor Dr. Christian Bogdan (Friedrich Alexander University, Erlangen), Professor Dr. Alexander Dalpke (Heidelberg University Hospital), Professor Dr. Dr. Ulrike Köhl (Leipzig University Hospital and Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, IZI, Leipzig) and Professor Dr. Nina Papavasiliou (German Cancer Research Center, DKFZ, Heidelberg), leading scientists in the field of innate immunity were recruited for an exciting program of lectures at the symposium. A particular highlight was the keynote lecture by Professor Dr. Lewis Lanier (Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California San Francisco; UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, USA) entitled "Natural killer cell activation".

At the retreat the following day, scientists from MI3's core and associated departments presented their exciting MI3 research projects, followed by lively discussions. A common conclusion of both event days is that they were more than worthwhile - not only because many findings of immunological research were exchanged, which always give impulses for project ideas. There was also enough time for networking to deepen existing collaborations and to initiate new ones.