Dear Colleagues,

 Preventing ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) is to organ 
 transplantation what the foundation is to a building. You do not
 see it but the solidity and the longevity of the building relies
 directly on it. Although the mechanisms of IRI are still not fully
 understood, much progress has been made in recent years.
 Ischemia reperfusion injury not only leads to major metabolic
 dysfunction but also triggers the innate immune response, which in
 turn provides the co-stimulation signal for adaptive immunity. It is
 now well established that the severity of IRI impacts on long-term
 graft outcome. The organ shortage, experienced in almost all
 countries developing organ transplant programs, requires the use
 of more and more extended criteria donor (ECD) organs or those
 retrieved from donors after cardiac death (DCD). The former are
 more vulnerable to IRI because of pre-existing lesions; the latter
 experience warm ischemia, which is an experimental model of IRI.
 Improving our understanding of the lesions in order to better
 prevent or treat them has become a major goal in the field of
 transplantation.

 The First International Meeting On Ischemia Reperfusion Injuries
 in Transplantation (IMIRT) will be held at the Futuroscope, In
 Poitiers, France on May 3-4  2012. This conference is designed for
 clinicians and clinical investigators, research associates, basic
 science investigators (cell and molecular biologists), members of
 public and private funding organizations, hospital administrators,
 program directors, legislators, and regulatory agency personnel.

 On behalf of SFT, ESOT and TTS, the program will include oral
 sessions, each including a “state of the art” lecture by an invited
 speaker, selected oral communications and poster exhibition.

 We hope to welcome you in Poitiers in 2012.

 For the Organizing Committee
 Benoît BARROU