Saarbrücken, August 24, 2023 – Pharmacists, physicians, biologists, physicists and engineers from all over the world will meet in Saarbrücken from 26 to 30 August: The 24th Congress of the International Society for Aerosol Medicine (ISAM) will bring together more than 250 scientists from 20 countries on the campus of Saarland University. For five days, they will exchange ideas on respiratory diseases - for example caused by the corona virus -, inhaled medicines and health risks caused by environmental aerosols.
"The aim of the conference is to exchange information on the current state of the art in aerosol medicine. The programme includes more than 50 lectures - on medical, pharmaceutical, physical and technical aspects," explains Claus-Michael Lehr. The Professor of Biopharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology at Saarland University and Head of the Department Drug Delivery at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) is organising this year's congress together with Marc Schneider, Professor of Biopharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology, and Robert Bals, Director of the Clinic for Pneumology, Allergology, Respiratory and Environmental Medicine at University Clinic in Homburg.
After several years of the Corona pandemic and in the spirit of the research at HIPS, infectious diseases, and namely the topic of "viral infections and COVID", are a focus of the Saarbrücken congress, where virologist Christian Drosten is also expected to attend. Another central topic is cell culture models as an alternative to animal experiments, especially in connection with the transport of drugs across biological barriers (in this case the lungs) and their administration as inhalable aerosols. Claus-Michael Lehr illustrates: "Our inner lung surface is as large as a tennis court but only one micrometre (i.e. one thousandth of a millimetre) thick." This "air-blood barrier", which is supposed to retain pathogens or toxic substances from the environment but allow inhaled medicines to pass through, is one of the research foci in Saarbrücken.
In addition to pharmacists, respiratory and intensive care physicians, aerosol scientists, inhalation toxicologists and medical technicians will participate in the congress. The experts come both from academic research and - as experts for product development and approval - from industry. Within the framework of an industrial exhibition, 21 companies will inform about their current technologies and products. A large part of the participants are young scientists, i.e. doctoral students and postdocs.
The ISAM – International Society for Aerosols in Medicine was founded in 1973; its conferences, which take place every two years at different locations around the world, are among the world's largest conferences on respiratory health and inhaled drug delivery.
The Saarbrücker ISAM Conference will take place from 26 to 30 August. On the first day of the event, 26 August, workshops will be offered to teach the basics of aerosol medicine (including inhalation medicine and toxicology, aerosol modelling, inhalers, cell culture models). The official conference opening will take place on the same day from 5 pm. The industrial exhibition will be open on all conference days.
Link to the conference: https://isam.org/page/2023-ISAM-Congress
Venue: Saarland University, Campus Saarbrücken
Questions will be answered by:
Prof Dr Claus-Michael Lehr
Head of the department Drug Delivery across Biological Barriers at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) and University Professor for Biopharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology (UdS)
Tel.: +49 (0)681 98806-1000
E-mail: claus-michael.lehr(at)helmholtz-hips.de
Prof Dr Marc Schneider
Saarland University, Professor for Biopharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology
Tel.: +49 (0)681 302-2438
E-mail: Marc.Schneider(at)uni-saarland.de
Prof Dr Dr Robert Bals
Director of the Clinic for Internal Medicine V - Pneumology, Allergology, Respiratory and Environmental Medicine at the University Clinic in Homburg
Tel.: +49 (0)6841 16-15051
E-mail: robert.bals(at)uks.eu
