RUDOLF KLEN 90th Birthday Anniversary Meeting

Information 
Download poster 

9 JULY, 2005, HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ, CZECH REPUBLIC

MEETING ORGANIZERS:

European Association of Tissue Banks • Civic Association EATB.CZ Czechoslovak Biological Society • Czech Transplantation Society Medical Faculty of the Charles University & University Hospital Hradec Králové

PROGRAM:

• 9.00 Opening Ceremony & Congratulations
• 10.00 Coffee Break
• 10.30 Glyn O. PHILLIPS (UK) : Tissue Banking – Past, Present and Future (State of the Art Lecture)
• 11.00 David E. PEGG (UK) : Preservation of Tissues for Transplantation (State of the Art Lecture)
• 11.30 Free Communications12.00 Lunch16.00 Social Program – watch the website
• 12.00 Lunch
• 16.00 Social Program – watch the website

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:

Pavel NAVRÁTIL (Chairman), Hradec Králové • Jiří ADLER, Brno Petr KOBYLKA, Prague • Jaroslav ŠPATENKA, Prague

VENUE:

Medical Faculty of the Charles University Hradec Králové, Aula Magna

Reservation for Accommodation was made at:

Penzion Nové Adalbertinum
Velké náměstí 32
CZ-500 01 Hradec Králové
Phone: +420 495 063 111
e-mail: adalbertinum@diecezehk.cz

Penzion Pod Věží
Velké náměstí 165
CZ-500 01 Hradec Králové
Phone: +420 495 514 932
e-mail: penzion@pod-vezi.cz

Contact Address:

Ass. Prof. Jiří ADLER, MD, PhD
Tissue Bank University Hospital Brno
Jihlavská 20, 625 00 BRNO
CZECH REPUBLIC
Tel.: +420 532 233 997
Fax: +420 532 232 372
e-mail: j.adler@fnbrno.cz

On 2nd July 2005 the world community of tissue bankers will celebrate the 90th birthday of an outstanding personality in the field of tissue banking – Professor Rudolf KLEN, M.D., DrSc. Professor KLEN was born on 2nd July 1915 in Prague. He spent his primary and secondary schoolyears in Kolin, a small city not far from Prague in former Czechoslovakia. In 1934 he started his medical studies at the Charles University in Prague, but due to the war outbreak and closing of the Czech Universities he could not finish his studies. Because of his Jewish origin he was captured by the Nazis and spent almost 4 years of his life in concentration camps Terezin, Auschwitz, Kaufering, Landshut and Dachau. After the war, he could finish his medical studies, and was graduated as a medical doctor at the Charles University in 1946. He started his career at first at the Department of Public Health of the Government, later he continued at the Department of Forensic Medicine in Hradec Králové. Working in an institution, where potential tissue donors were frequently available, after acquiring some information about the New York Eye Bank and US Navy Bone Bank, he got an idea to set up a similar institution in Czechoslovakia. In 1951 he worked out and submitted for public discussion the basic concept of establishing a tissue bank at Hradec Králové, which was accepted. On 1st October 1952, the first European tissue laboratory started its activity under his leadership. This establishment was supplying former Czechoslovakian hospitals with tissue grafts procured from cadaveric donors. Later on, under the collaboration with the WHO, the grafts were delivered also to foreign institutions – 25 destinations in four continents. In 1957, his first monograph „Tissue Banking“ was published by Avicenum in Czech. In 1962, the monograph was translated into Russian, and in 1982 a new edition „Biological Principles of Tissue Banking“ was published by Pergamon Press, Oxford. This publication represented one of the very first comprehensive scientific work in the field of tissue banking. In 1963, Dr. KLEN defended his thesis and received the scientific degree „CSc“ (the title was equal to current PhD). In 1966, he was promoted to Associate Professor, and in 1969 he received the scientific degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences (DrSc). In spite of achieving the highest scientific degree, for political reasons he had to wait another 23 years until he received his full professorship of the Charles University in 1992.

Professor KLEN was founder and member of several scientific societies, such as Czechoslovak Biological Society (Honorary Member since 1987), Indian Cryogenic Council (Honorary Member since 1987), and European Association of Tissue Banks (first Honorary Member since 1992). List of his scientific publications includes 4 monographs (some of them translated to several languages), and 167 scientific papers published both in the Czechoslovakian journals and in renowned international journals. In the 80’s he was collaborating with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as an expert. He assisted in establishment of tissue banks in Rangoon (former Burma, now Myanmar) and Calcutta, India. Under the IAEA program, many tissue bank scientists and technicians from developing countries were coming to professional visits and fellowships to the Hradec Králové Tissue Bank. Despite of his advanced age he is still scientifically active, and in a position of the Advisor very helpful to the Transplant Center in Hradec Králové.

Dear Professor KLEN, on behalf of the European Association of Tissue Banks as well as all the professionals who work in the field of tissue and cell banking, we wish you a Happy Birthday and „Ad multos annos“.

Ass. Professor Jan KOLLER, M.D., PhD
President European Association of Tissue Banks