Welcome to the 7th Congress of the Federation of the Israel Societies for Experimental Biology (FISEB/ILANIT 2014).

The ILANIT Congress has become one of the major scientific events in Israel, bringing together thousands of Israeli scientists and students from all the Life Sciences and related disciplines. ILANIT is a federation comprising 28 scientific societies, covering all aspects of basic, biomedical and interdisciplinary biological research in Israel. Its major objective is to serve as a public arena wherein biological research in Israel is promoted by scientific dialogue and interaction among researchers in universities, research institutes, hospitals, and science-based industries.

This year we expect more than 1,150 students and postdocs, 750 senior scientists and 150 company representatives. Throughout the four days of the Congress, you will have an opportunity to select topics of interest from 410 oral presentations in 68 sessions, covering a wide range of subjects in theoretical, experimental, and applied biology. In addition, you are invited to learn about cutting-edge technologies, life after graduate school and biology education in the three early-bird sessions. We urge you to appreciate the wealth of biology research in Israel by participating in the two poster sessions, with 1,000 posters, while enjoying food and drinks. 114 posters were selected to be presented at 19 dedicated parallel Oral Poster sessions – new at ILANIT. It will be particularly easy this year to navigate your way through the Congress and create your personal meeting schedule, using the new mobile application developed specifically for ILANIT.

This Congress will host, for the first time, 45 Israeli postdoctoral fellows working abroad who were selected to present their research at the parallel and oral poster sessions. Travel fellowships for these postdocs were made possible through generous gifts from The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and Yad Hanadiv. This provides a unique opportunity for the biomedical community in Israel to familiarize itself with the next generation of Israeli leading scientists.

We are privileged to have with us six distinguished speakers from abroad who will deliver the plenary lectures: Prof. Arie Warshel of the University of Southern California, the 2013 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, who will deliver the opening keynote lecture; Prof. Todd R. Golub of the Broad Institute; Prof. David Bartel of MIT; Prof. Hans Clevers of Utrecht University; Prof. Michael Karin of the University of California, San Diego and Prof. Hao Wu of Harvard University. Per ILANIT’s tradition, we will celebrate the ILANIT-Katzir Prize at the end of the Congress.

To accommodate the large number of participants, the sessions will take place in five hotels: Herods Boutique, Dan Eilat, Royal Beach, Herods Palace and Isrotel Sport Club. 44 exhibits by companies – which we hope that each of you will visit – will also be held among the hotels. The ‘Pavilion’, the large hall at the Herods Boutique, will be used for plenary sessions.