A pilot symposium to promote a new tradition of lively, mutual scientific exchange and dialogue between the strong life science research centres and graduate schools within the European International Research Universities Network (IRUN) was oranised by BIOME and held at Villa Wolfsburg, Mülheim an der Ruhr in October 2011. Guest keynote speakers from other IRUN partner universities were Gosse Adema, Irma Joosten and Jurjen Tel, Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences (NCMLS), Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Gerard Graham, Glasgow Biomedical Research Centre, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom and Stephan Ludwig, Center for Molecular Biology of Inflammation (ZMBE), University of Münster, Germany. Other guest speakers were Reinhard Fässler, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried and Andreas Krueger, Hannover Medical School, Germany.