History | European Cell Death Organization

The European Cell Death Organization (ECDO) was founded in 1994 and has currently more than 200 members representing all major research groups in Europe, but also from non-European countries.

ECDO's history - view by two of its founders

The history of ECDO goes to the 80’ies of the last century. Although the term “programmed cell death” was introduced by Richard Lockshin, who was a PhD student at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), the term “apoptosis” was coined in 1972 by John Kerr, Andrew Wyllie and Alastair Currie from a European team from Scotland. Interestingly, in the list of key contributors to the field described by Andrew Wyllie in 1988 in the Atlas of Science, majority were from Europe. Accordingly, the first international Symposium on apoptosis in Europe was organized in 1989 in Sardinia by Amedeo Columbano, the Symposium was attended by about 30 scientists including Andrew Wyllie and John Kerr. In 1990 in the framework of the 20th FEBS Meeting in Budapest (Hungary) Laszlo Fesus organized another Symposium on “Programmed Cell Death” attended by over 100 participants. Researchers from different countries presented data on biochemistry, cell biology and morphology of apoptotic cells. The main focus was on the understanding of mechanisms of DNA fragmentation and role of calcium in this process, involvement of transglutaminase, and phagocytosis in development and recognition of apoptosis, as well as two biological examples of cell death: death of intestinal cells and radiation-induced cell death. Importantly, Peter Krammer and Klaus-Michael Debatin described a novel apoptosis pathway induced by monoclonal antibody Apo-1. In fact, it was a really breakthrough symposium.
In 1992 as a result of the Conference in Pasteur Institute, hosted by Marie-Lise Gougeon and Luc Montagnier, the European Working Group on Apoptosis (EWGA) was established. This group included researchers from France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Ireland and Hungary. Moreover, it was decided to organize the 1st Euroconference on apoptosis in Paris. With the help of the European School of Hematology, Prof. Michel Lanotte put together an excellent scientific program, which included researchers not only from European countries, but also from the USA and Japan.
As a result of the 2nd Euroconference on Apoptosis, the EWGA has been registered as an official structure and the First President, Prof. Sten Orrenius, was elected. In 1994 the EWGA denomination was transformed in the European Cell Death Organization (ECDO).
The first six Euroconferences were supported by the Commission of European Communities DGXII, Training and mobility program and organized with a help of the European School of Hematology. Then ECDO was responsible for managing all Euroconferences, except in 2003, when the European Commission again helped us. In 2003, the ECDO Constitution was registered at Ghent (Belgium). Starting from the 11th Conference in Ghent, outstanding researchers in the field are invited to give an ECDO Honorary Lectures. In conjunction with this lecture, recipients are receiving a plate that documented the ECDO Career Award for Excellence in Cell Death Research. During these years a long standing collaboration with the leading journal in the field Cell Death & Differentiation was established. Each year young fellows are getting CDD’s poster Award and from 2015 the Editorial Board decided to propose a new scientific prize named “The CDD Tschopp Prize”, which will be delivered annually on the Euroconferences on Apoptosis.

Boris Zhivotovsky
Mauro Piacentini

The main aims of ECDO are

To share information on current developments in the field of cell death research

To facilitate scientific links between and among the participating laboratories

To assist the mobility of students and researches between institutions (within and across national borders)

To form interest groups in relation to various topics of cell death research

Presidents of ECDO

Dr. Sten Orrenius (Stockholm, Sweden) - 1995 - 1996
Dr. Laszlo Fesus (Debrecen, Hungary) - 1997 - 1998
Dr. Marie-Lise Gougeon (Paris, France) - 1999 - 2000
Dr. Peter H. Krammer (Heidelberg, Germany) - 2001 - 2002
Dr. Mauro Piacentini (Rome, Italy) - 2003 - 2005
Dr. Klaus-Michael Debatin (Ulm, Germany) - 2005-2007
Dr. Hans-Uwe Simon (Bern, Switzerland) - 2007-2009
Dr. Boris Zhivotovsky (Stockholm, Sweden) - 2009-2011
Dr. Guido Kroemer (Vilejuif, France) - 2011-2013
Dr. Peter Vandenabeele (Ghent, Belgium) - 2013-2015
Dr. Seamus Martin (Dublin, Ireland) - 2015-2017
Dr. Patrizia Agostinis (Leuven, Belgium) - 2017-2019
Dr. Gerry Melino (Leicester, UK) - 2019-2021

Constitution

1. Name and domicile
Article 1
A Non-Profit Organization was established under the name "European Cell Death Organization". This name can be abbreviated as ECDO. All acts, invoices, announcements, publications and all other documents from the non-profit organization must state the name of the association, ...
Read More +

The ECDO Euroconferences

In trying to reach it's goals, ECDO is organising the annual Euroconferences, and is also organising special workshops and courses for young researchers in the field.

The first meeting was organised by the European School of Hematology (ESH) with support from the Commission of European Communities DGXII, Training and mobility program. The Executive Director of ESH, Ms. D. Jasmin and her assistant Ms. G. Lebougault put a lot of energy to bring together European researchers in the apoptosis field. ESH and ECDO jointly organized the next six Meetings, again with the support from the Commission of European Communities. From the eighth Meeting on, ECDO is the main organiser of the Euroconferences. The main support for these meetings comes from the European Commission(COST Action 844; Marie Curie Conferences and training courses MSCF-CT-2003-504454).

The previous conferences

1st Euroconference on Apoptosis, Paris, France
1993
chair: Michel Lanotte
2nd Euroconference on Apoptosis, Kinsale, Irland
October 1-4, 1994
chair: Thomas Cotter
3th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Cuenca, Spain
October 21-25, 1995
chairs: Abelardo Lopez-Rivas, Carlos Martinez-A and Michel Lanotte.
4th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Capri, Italy
September 25-29, 1996
chairs: Gerry Melino and Mauro Piacentini
5th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Bingen/Rhein, Germany
September 28 - October 1
chairs: Klaus-Michael Debatin and Peter H. Krammer
6th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Stockholm, Sweden
September 24-27, 1998
chair: Sten Orrenius
7th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Ein Gedi, Israel
November 14-17,1999
chairs: Adi Kimich, Moshe Oren and Elisheva Yonish-Rouach
8th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Davos, Switzerland
October 14-17, 2000
chairs: Hans-Uwe Simon and Uwe Zangemeister-Wittke
9th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Vienna, Austria
October 13-16, 2001
chairs: Wilfried Bursch and Laszlo Fesus
10th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Paris, France
October 10-13, 2002
chairs: Marie-Lise Gougeon and Guido Kroemer
11th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Ghent, Belgium
October 25-28, 2003
chairs: Peter Vandenabeele and Wim Declercq
12th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Chania, Crete
September 17-20, 2004
chairs: Antonios Makris and Sotirios Kampranis
13th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Budapest, Hungary
October 1-4, 2005
chairs: Laszlo Fesus and Zsuzsa Szondy
14th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Sardinia, Italy
September 29 - October 4, 2006
chairs: Amedeo Columbano and Mauro Piacentini
15th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Portoroz, Slovenia
October 26-31, 2007
chair: Boris Turk
16th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Bern, Switzerland
September 6-9, 2008
chairs: Hans-Uwe Simon and Thomi Brunner
17th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Paris, France
September 23-26, 2009
chairs: Marie-Lise Gougeon and Guido Kroemer
18th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Ghent, Belgium
September 1-4, 2010
chairs: Peter Vandenabeele, Wim Declercq and Patrizia Agostinis
19th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Stockholm, Sweden
September 14-17, 2011
chairs: Boris Zhivotovsky, Bertrand Joseph and Theoharis Panaretakis
20th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Rome, Italy
September 14-17, 2012
chairs: Mauro Piacentini, Eleonora Candi, Francesco Cecconi and Gerry Melino
21th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Paris, France
September 25-28, 2013
chairs: Marie-Lise Gougeon and Guido Kroemer
22nd Euroconference on Apoptosis, Hersonissos, Crete
October 1-4, 2014
chair: Nektarios Tavernarakis
23rd Euroconference on Apoptosis, Geneva, Switserland
October 7-10, 2015
chair: Jean-Claude Martinou
24th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Barcelona, Spain
September 28-30, 2016
chair: Cristina Munoz Pinedo and Jean-Ehrland Ricci
25th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Leuven, Belgium
September 27-29, 2017
chair: Patrizia Agostinis

26th Euroconference on Apoptosis, St. Petersburg, Russia
October 10-12, 2018
chair: Boris Zhivotovsky & Inna Lavrik

27th Euroconference on Apoptosis, Dresden, Germany
September 25-27, 2019
chair: Dagmar Kulms & Andreas Linkermann