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From the EFI President - EFI Newsletter, issue 108, January 2026
Dear EFI Members,
It is a pleasure to reach out to you once again through our periodic Newsletter. I hope this message finds you well, while as usual, being daily engaged in your work in our field of Immunogenetics. I would like to initiate my communication expressing a huge thank to Sebastiaan Heidt, for serving as Editor-in-Chief of the EFI Newsletter throughout these many years, using his great expertise and skill. In the name of all the EFI Members, I would really like to let Sebastiaan know how much we all appreciated his commitment for this relevant EFI duty. As well, I would like to thank Neema Mayor for agreeing to take his place, giving continuity to the publication of EFI Newsletter. No doubt that Neema, based on her great knowledge in science and in particular in the field of H&I will maintain the same high quality level of the periodic EFI Newsletter. To Neema, congratulations and best wishes on her new service in EFI! Thanks also to Gurvinder Kaur, who kindly serves as proofreader for all EFI Newsletters. I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation to the Chairs and all Members of the various EFI Committees. Their diligence, expert advice, and dedication are the pillars upon which the success and high standards of our Federation rest. In particular, I would like to remind all of you that after the hard work of the EFI Standards Committee, chaired by Katy Latham, the new version 9.0 has been reviewed. I hope that very soon, after collecting the suggestions of the EFI Membership and a formal approval of the Accreditation Committee, chaired by Blanka Vidan-Jeras, this new version of the Standards will become official. The whole document went through a very extensive revision, improving the strength and explicitness of each single standard that will help the daily activity of the colleagues in the Labs, of the Inspectors and of the Commissioners.
My warmest congratulations go to Zorana Andric, Head of Tissue Typing Department, Blood Transfusion Institute of Serbia, in Belgrade, for successfully organizing the recent Annual EFI Region 8 & Balkan EPT meeting, which was held in Belgrade on October 25th, 2025. The event offered an exceptional program and a wonderful environment for networking and scientific exchange. The dedication of the entire local organizing committee made it a truly valuable occasion. After the fantastic EFI Conference we participated last May in Prague, so well organized by Tony Slavčev and Gottfried Fischer, we need to mark our calendars for the 39th European Immunogenetics & Histocompatibility conference that will be held in Edinburgh, Scotland, from the 21st to the 24th of April, 2026. David Turner and Ann-Margaret Little are eagerly awaiting our arrival and are putting together a scientifically rich and socially appealing program in the beautiful and historic city of Edinburgh. No doubt that the Conference is going to be an event we cannot miss! Looking further ahead, I am pleased to announce that the International Summer School of 2026 will be held from the 11th to the 14th of November on the beautiful island of Crete, organized by our colleague Katarina Tarassi, in conjunction with the Sister Scientific Societies. This intensive course is an invaluable educational opportunity for our younger members and those seeking advanced training, dedicated to young EFI Colleagues. I also have an administrative improvement to announce of the migration of the old EFI website to a new platform. Redkiwi is taking care of this with the supervision of Eric Spierings and of Ingrid Abelman and Margriet van Rijn from the EFI Office, for which we all are very grateful. We hope that the new EFI website will be available for the first weeks of the New Year, and I ask for your patience during this transitional period, if we need to make any additional adjustments as it goes live. This move is essential to provide our members with a more modern, efficient, and user-friendly digital resource. We will keep you updated on its full launch. I would like to point out that among other news, the CPDMe tool will be easier to reach out in the new platform. As you know, it has been designed to upload and record professional activities and scientific contributions, which is vital for both demonstrating the breadth of our work and for supporting accreditation processes. I strongly invite everyone to use the CPDMe tool that would be made available by EFI. We are delighted to underline our strong collaboration with our international partners, in particular with ASHI. This partnership is crucial for many different scientific aspects, but in particular, we are working on a program aimed to harmonize new standards that we are planning to write in conjunction with the EFI Standard Committee, on educational programs, sharing a few specific Webinars and on Research, solidifying our joint commitment to advancing the field of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics worldwide. Let me thank again Deborah Sage, Chair of the EFI Educational Committee, for having organized three fantastic Webinars this year, provided by John Trowsdale, Neema Mayor and Alicia Sanchez-Mazas which were very well participated and appreciated by the EFI Members. I know that Deb is already working on this year’s program that will comprise a few Webinars proposed by both the EFI Young and the Scientific Committees. Please do not forget that for those who did not have the possibility to follow the live Webinars, it is possible to download the recorded versions of each of them, located under the section e-learning of the EFI Website. Please, be aware that in the same section, the recorded teaching lessons held during the different EFI Conferences are also available.
Finally, I would like to express my profound thanks to the entire EFI team. Many are the activities that daily David Roelen and Kay Poulton take care of as EFI Secretary and Deputy-Secretary, as well as the EFI Treasurer, Jean Villard and the Deputy Treasurer, Nicolas Vince. Your excellent work, professionalism, and tireless support are crucial to the smooth operation of the Federation. Thank you for making everything run so efficiently. In addition, of course I cannot forget to thank Sonja Geelhoed, Margriet van Rijn and Ingrid Abelman for the great work that they provide every single day, sitting in the Leiden Office, for all the EFI Members. I also would like to take the opportunity with this report of mine to thank Professor Steven Marsh, Editor in Chief of the HLA journal, for providing the access free of costs for the EFI Members to the high-level scientific contents of the HLA Journal.
I look forward to our continued collaboration, hoping to see many of you in Edinburgh!
Sincerely,
Marco, EFI President