Inauguration of the Geneva Centre for Inflammation Research

© Elisa de Castro  Alvarez - UNIGE. Professor Cem Gabay, Dean of the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, during the GCIR Opening Ceremony

In November 2020, 29 research groups from the Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Sciences and the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) working on different aspects of inflammation decided to join forces to create the Geneva Centre for Inflammation Research (GCIR). After two years of pandemic, its inauguration took place last October 13 with more than a hundred scientists gathered at the Auditorium of the Louis-Jeantet Foundation.

After a morning of inauguration, a scientific symposium featured presentations from the centre’s basic and clinical research groups as well as six internationally renowned scientists in the field of inflammation, covering a range of topics such as neuroinflammation, cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases, microbial infections, cancer immunotherapy and immunology.

"With the GCIR, we want to break down the walls between the clinic and basic research, and strengthen the links between biotech companies throughout the Lake Geneva region and the Faculty of Medicine," said Cem Gabay, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and Doron Merkler, GCIR Academic Coordinator, both of whom initiated the project. "Currently, the GCIR researchers focus on three areas of research: autoimmune dysfunction, host response to pathogens, and immune cell trafficking and maturation. The centre’s interdisciplinary approach provides an ideal environment for the advancement of biomedical knowledge with the goal of finding new treatments."

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