On May 11–13, 2026, the international conference “3rd EFIS Forum on Innate Immunity in Sterile Inflammation, Autoimmunity, and their Resolution” (iiSIAR 2026) was held in Vilnius, at the Hilton Garden Inn hotel conference center. The event was organized by the iiSIAR Study group of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS), the VU Life Sciences Center (LSC), and the Lithuanian Society for Immunology.
The organization of this conference in Vilnius reflects the active involvement of VU LSC researchers in the international immunological community. Their participation in the “EFIS iiSIAR” Study group provided the opportunity to organize this high-level international scientific conference in Vilnius. Researchers from different countries - Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Israel, the USA, Canada and others came together to discuss recent advances in innate immunity, sterile inflammation, autoimmunity, and mechanisms involved in the resolution of inflammation The program also addressed translational aspects of these discoveries and emerging therapeutic strategies
The conference featured presentations by internationally recognized scientists: the spokesman of the iiSIAR Study group Prof. Amiram Ariel (Israel), Prof. Massimo Locati (Italy), Prof. Massimiliano Mazzone (Belgium), Prof. Elodie Segura (France), prof. Mauro Perretti (United Kingdom), Prof. Liwu Li (USA), and other prominent researchers in immunology and inflammation biology.
A significant part of the program was dedicated to early-career scientists. They actively participated in short talk sessions having a great opportunity to present their research to an international audience and discuss with experts. Foreign researchers were awarded EFIS-EJI travel grants, and the best presentations were recognized with the awards of the Society for Leukocyte Biology (SBL). Two early-career researchers from VU LSC received SBL awards – Kristina Mašalaitė and Danas Ivanauskas.
In addition to the scientific program, conference participants also had the opportunity to visit our University – guided tours were organized for them to Vilnius Old Town, visiting the courtyards of VU and the bell tower of St. John's Church, which offers impressive panoramic views of Vilnius. It is noteworthy that most of the foreign participants visited Lithuania for the first time.
The overall organization of the conference was under the responsibility of the local organizing committee - prof. Aurelija Žvirblienė, dr. Martynas Simanavičius, dr. Indrė Kučinskaitė-Kodzė and the team of volunteers - dr. Karolina Bielskė, Indrė Dalgėdienė, Tomas Vainauskas, dr. Dovilė Stravinskienė, Povilas Žukauskas, Agnė Rimkutė, Kristina Mašalaitė, Dainius Gudas, Nazar Kushch. The organizers sincerely thank the sponsors and partners of the conference - the Research Council of Lithuania, the Future Biomedicine Foundation, agency GoVilnius, the company KELI Therapeutics, as well as the VU LSC Study Department, which provided the opportunity for VU LSC students to participate at the conference by paying their registration fees.
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