The annual retreat of Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine was held successfully on Dec 19-20, 2015. This year’s retreat was held in collaboration with Shanghai General Hospital at their scenic campus at Songjiang, Shanghai. The joint retreat marked the first successful event of the collaboration between Department of Immunology and Microbiology and SII with Shanghai General Hospital in the establishment of a collaborative translational research center to promote bench to bedside research.

At the opening remark of the retreat, Dr Bing Su, the Director of Shanghai Institute of Immunology (SII) and Chairman of Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, announced the current and future direction of the department and SII. Dr Su also took the opportunity to acknowledge all members of the department for their contribution to the major progress of the department and SII in the past year. The opening remark was followed by round table discussions by adjunct professors from USA, Singapore, Israel and Taiwan, PIs and co-PIs of the department and clinicians from Shanghai General Hospital. Among the topics discussed were the strategic plans for SII, plans on improving research infrastructure and promoting bench to bedside translational research. The discussion was followed by a keynote lecture on G-protein coupled receptors by Prof. Mingyao Liu, the Dean of School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University in Shanghai, China.

On the second day of the retreat, 10 PIs from SII presented their research findings and progress. The scientific presentation includes talks by SII’s adjunct professors, Prof Florent Ginhoux from Singapore and Prof Yinon Ben-Neriah from Israel. Clinicians from Shanghai General Hospital also took the opportunity to share their clinical research and experiences, thus enriching the discussions between clinical and basic scientists. Among the topics covered in the scientific presentation were tumor immunity, dendritic cells, macrophage, immunoglobulin and diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as TB, psoriasis and immune-related diseases. In the closing ceremony, Dr Xingpeng Wang, the Dean of Shanghai General Hospital expressed his confidence and high hopes for successes in the collaboration between the Department of Immunology and Microbiology, SII and Shanghai General Hospital. Finally, awards were given to students who had performed well in oral and/or poster presentation in an award ceremony.

The retreat was an overall successful event where it had brought together basic and clinical scientists to promote collaborations in translational research. Furthermore, the scientific presentations at the retreat had deepened the understanding of translational medicine among faculties and students, whom would be the main workforce and future talents in this area.