CENTENARY CELEBRATION of  St. Petersburg State Mechnikov Medical Academy November 2007

Dear Colleagues,
The year 2007 is contributing one more happy milestone to the history of Mechnikov Academy. This year Saint Petersburg State Medical Academy named after I.I. Mechnikov is celebrating 100 years jubilee of its foundation. On this great occasion we are glad to join hands with  German counterparts to invite you to participate in the 3rd International German – Russian Conference of the Koch – Mechnikov Forum devoted to the jubilee. Both Russian and German scientists and medical specialists contribute to the ideas of Ilya Mechnikov, the Great Russian immunologist whose discovery awarded with the Nobel Prize (1908) of phagocytosis still is as actual as ever. So actual for contemporary medicine are ideas of other Nobel Prizer (1905) and the Great German bacteriologist Robert Koch who discovered Mycobacterium tuberculosis, one of the great scourges of mankind till today. Thus, this meeting besides providing modern concepts and knowledge in Mechnikov‘s and Koch’s research areas, testifies to the Russian - German cooperation in the medical science, which looks back onto a long tradition. It is our hope to contribute by this meeting to the revival of this great tradition.
This meeting is the third of the Russian – German bilateral cooperation held as initiative of the Petersburg Dialog. We hope that there are many to follow.
The next, 4th Russian-German Conference in 2008 will be devoted to the 100 years anniversary of the Nobel Prize award jointly to Paul Erlich and Ilya Mechnikov .
· Prof. Alexander V. Shabrov, Rector of SPbSMA named after I.I. Mechnikov, St.Petersburg.
· Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c.  Helmut Hahn,  Berlin Medical Association,   Honorable President of Koch Mechnikov Forum, Berlin