Rothenfels Castle ‐ the place to be for immunology of infection

The beautiful Rothenfels Castle is located close to Würzburg in Northern Bavaria and rises high above the scenic Main valley. It is a place of history, mysteries and traditions. For 22 years now, it has also played host to an annual meeting for infection biologists, who use the event to exchange their ideas, enjoy science and develop future concepts. The meeting is organized by the Infection Immunology working group, which is a joint initiative between the German Society for Immunology (DGfI), who celebrated their 50th anniversary last year 1, and the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology (DGHM), founded over 100 years ago. There are 13 and 10 working groups within the DGfI and DGHM, respectively. Each working group concentrates on a different field of immunology and microbiology, organizes its own annual meeting and participates in the activities of its respective society. Many working groups pursue an interdisciplinary and often international approach. However, all follow the same concept: The scientific program of the meetings is put together from submitted abstracts with no or few invited speakers. Registration fees are kept as low as possible to allow high numbers of junior scientists to participate.