European Cell Death Organization (ECDO)

The European Cell Death Organization (ECDO) was founded in 1994 and has currently more than 200 members representing all major research groups in Europe, but also from non-European countries.

The history of ECDO goes to the 80’ies of the last century. Although the term “programmed cell death” was introduced by Richard Lockshin, who was a PhD student at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), the term “apoptosis” was coined in 1972 by John Kerr, Andrew Wyllie and Alastair Currie from a European team from Scotland. Interestingly, in the list of key contributors to the field described by Andrew Wyllie in 1988 in the Atlas of Science, majority were from Europe. Accordingly, the first international Symposium on apoptosis in Europe was organized in 1989 in Sardinia by Amedeo Columbano, the Symposium was attended by about 30 scientists including Andrew Wyllie and John Kerr. In 1990 in the framework of the 20th FEBS Meeting in Budapest (Hungary) Laszlo Fesus organized another Symposium on “Programmed Cell Death” attended by over 100 participants. Researchers from different countries presented data on biochemistry, cell biology and morphology of apoptotic cells. The main focus was on the understanding of mechanisms of DNA fragmentation and role of calcium in this process, involvement of transglutaminase, and phagocytosis in development and recognition of apoptosis, as well as two biological examples of cell death: death of intestinal cells and radiation-induced cell death. Importantly, Peter Krammer and Klaus-Michael Debatin described a novel apoptosis pathway induced by monoclonal antibody Apo-1. In fact, it was a really breakthrough symposium.

The main aims of ECDO are
• To share information on current developments in the field of cell death research
• To facilitate scientific links between and among the participating laboratories
• To assist the mobility of students and researches between institutions (within and across national borders)
• To form interest groups in relation to various topics of cell death research