Care-for-Rare has strengthened and extended its engagement in South-East Asia during an important series of events in November this year:
3rd International PID Meeting „From Bench to Bedside“: Care-for-Rare Global Alliance Educational Seminar in Kuala Lumpur in cooperation with IPOPI.

November 2023 —

During the„3rd international South-East Asian PID-Meeting: From Bench to Bedside“ which offered several educational activities for physicians and scientists from South-East Asian countries we have once again extended our network of immunologists and doctors interested in the field of Primary Immunodeficiencies (PIDs) in a common effort with IPOPI, the International Patient Organisation for Primary Immunodeficiencies.

The first activity of this event series – our Care-for-Rare Global Alliance Educational Seminar – was embedded in the 4th regional Asian PID doctors and patients meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on November 19th and 20th. We have welcomed participants from Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines, Japan, Nepal, Bangladesh, India and South Korea.

Thanks to the Care-for-Rare Fellowship Program two young doctors from Cambodia and Thailand were able to attend the meeting. In this conference the audience got insights in state-of-the art of PID diagnosis and treatments in Asia, optimal PID management, the many faces of Inborn Errors of Immunity, the importance of global alliances in PID research, advanced therapies: the future of BMT in Asia as well as the importance of data collection and registries. Experts from Europe and Asia shared their knowledge in a joint effort during several scientific lectures and panel discussions on topics such as „Global Alliances in practice: How regional doctors and scientists can benefit – the example of SEAPID and APSID“, „APSID/SEAPID regional registry update: Where are we and where would we like to be?“ and „Newborn screening for rare diseases – real life experiences and future opportunities“. The official program was followed by several networking opportunities and further discussions about how to improve the situation of children with rare diseases and their treating physicians in this part of the world.

The meeting was a follow-up meeting of our 1st and 2nd international PID meeting in Bangkok in 2015 and 2017 where one of the main outcomes was to lay the foundation for a dedicated South-East Asian PID Consortium (SEAPID) which has started its work back in 2015 and is now working efficiently on a day-to-day basis which has already resulted in a joint publication
Please click here to see the official scientific program.

Kick-off of the first Care-for-Rare Knowledge Hub for Precision Medicine of Rare Immunological Disorders in Bangkok:

This educational series set the perfect stage for the Kick-off of the first Care-for-Rare Knowledge Hub for precision medicine of rare immunological disorders in Bangkok. This pioneer project – a regional educational hub focused on immunological disorders- located at the Excellence Center for Genomics and Precision Medicine, Chulalongkorn University Bangkok will have a flagship function as expertise center of rare immunological diseases for surrounding regions and countries in South-East Asia. The specific goal of the hub is to bring about an improvement in the situation of rare disease patients of an entire region by offering a boost of knowledge development in the field of rare immunological diseases. Physicians and scientists in the area will be able to participate in training and education programs at our local expert center, receive advanced training in temporary placements in our labs in Munich, establish joint research projects, and also send patient samples to our specialized C4R Centers for analysis and interpretation of gene mutations and correct diagnosis. Through this project, we aim to train the future trainers and young talents in the field of immunology in South-East Asia in order to make the mission of Care for Rare – that every child should have access to adequate medical care, regardless of their ethnic, religious, or financial background – a reality. The opening of the C4R knowledge hub was celebrated in a festive inauguration ceremony where the lab sign with the logo was handed over to the Dean of the Medical Faculty of Chulalongkorn University and to our long-standing cooperation partner, Prof. Kanya Suphapeetiporn who is the Head of the Excellence Center for Genomics and Precision Medicine at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital.

Care-for-Rare Global Alliance symposium with keynote lecture by Prof. Christoph Klein followed by Thai national PID meeting

During the second activity Care-for-Rare held a Global Alliance Symposium in Bangkok on November 22, 2022 on the topic of „Precision diagnostics in rare immune-mediated diseases“ within the Thai national PID Meeting organized by IPOPI and Chulalongkorn University of Bangkok. Care-for-Rare’s Founder Prof. Dr. Christoph Klein held a cutting-edge scientific lecture in front of an audience of more than 150 Thai students, graduates and physicians and scientists. During his lecture he encouraged the participants and young talents to go the extramile during their daily work and to look for the rare instead of the common. He also highlighted the importance of an interdisciplinary approach of physicians and scientists from various disciplines when treating patients with an unclear diagnsis. The event was organized in a hybrid way so that many participants could also follow online. The lecture was followed by a case-study on a successful example of how international collaboration paved the way to a correct diagnosis through genetic testing and following adequate treatment of two siblings with very early onset inflammatory bowel disease. Thanks to an impressive joint effort from physicians and scientists from Europe and Bangkok these two children could be healed and now live a healthy life.  This symposium – which was mainly addressed to young doctors and scientists from Thailand – was also a joint effort of C4R and IPOPI as well as Chulalongkorn University of Bangkok and offered an excellent selection about Hot Topics in PID including several Case Studies presented by young fellows from different hospitals and institutes in Thailand.

This event series again demonstrated the very fruitful and cooperative common efforts of our partner institutes, the patient organisations and C4R to advance the current status quo of discovery and treatment of Inborn Errors of Immunity in the whole region of South-East Asia and to educate future key personell from various disciplines for an improvement of the situation of children with rare diseases and their families.

For detailed information on the scientific program click here.

Both of these educational activities are follow-up meetings of our PID conferences in 2015 und 2017 organised jointly with IPOPI.