European Society for Microcirculation (ESM)

The European Society for Microcirculation was founded in Hamburg in 1960 following a first meeting of interested scientists in Lund, Sweden in 1959, and now has 500-600 regular members. The aims of the Society are to advance understanding of the microcirculation by bringing together clinicians and scientists from a wide range of specialists, but including physiology, vascular biology, genetics and biophysics.

It is now widely recognized that involvement of the small blood vessels is fundamental to numerous disease processes including the spread of cancer, delayed healing, circulatory shock and the complications of diabetes. Such conditions affect people of all ages and result in considerable disability and premature death. New preventative measures and treatments are likely to rely on a more thorough understanding of how the small blood vesses fail in such conditions. By combining the efforts of both basic and clinical scientists, the Society is well poised to make significant contributions towards achieving such goals.