Research Meetings

On 16–19 August 2026, the inaugural Global PCD Conference will take place in Montreal (Quebec, Canada). This premier international event will focus on the science and clinical care of PCD, providing a unique platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration. The conference will bring together researchers, clinicians, patients, and advocacy groups from around the world to advance discovery, foster collaboration, and drive innovation in PCD care and research.

The event is proudly co-organized by BEAT-PCD, in partnership with the North American PCD Foundation and ERN-LUNG, ensuring a truly global perspective and collaborative approach to advancing the field. More info on our dedicated event page.

The PCD Annual Research Meeting 2025 was held in person at the Amsterdam UMC – VUmc (Vrije Universiteit Medical Center) in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) on September 26th, ahead of the ERS International Congress. The one-day event was organized in collaboration with ERN-LUNG.

Replay

The replay of the whole day can be found on Lena Events website

Program

The program can be found here

The PCD Annual Research Meeting 2024 was held in person at the Allgemeines Krankenhaus (AKH) der Stadt Wien in Vienna (Austria) on September 6th, ahead of the ERS International Congress. The one-day event was organized in collaboration with ERN-LUNG.

Program

The program can be found here

The PCD Annual Research Meeting 2023 was held in person at the University of Milano in Milan (Italy) on September 8th, ahead of the ERS International Congress. The one-day event was organized in collaboration with ERN-LUNG.

Program

The program can be found here

The PCD Annual Research Meeting 2022 was held in person at Vall d'Hebron Hospital Universitari in Barcelona (Spain) on September 3rd, ahead of the ERS International Congress. The one-day event included the BEAT-PCD Training School and the PCD Research Meeting, organized in collaboration with ERN-LUNG.

The BEAT-PCD Conference & Training School were held from 26 to 29 March 2019 in Poznań (Poland), hosted by the Institute of Human Genetics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The event gathered 146 participants from 27 countries, including clinicians, scientists, physicians, and specialists dedicated to studying and managing PCD. The conference featured plenary lectures, oral presentations, training workshops, clinical case presentations, and a poster session, covering a broad spectrum of topics such as PCD diagnostics, genetics, clinical management, disease mechanisms, and therapeutic approaches. The Training School offered hands-on learning opportunities for young researchers and clinicians, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration between basic scientists and healthcare professionals. The event also provided a platform to summarize the achievements of the BEAT-PCD project, highlight its main results and publications, and present preliminary findings on the potential application of new therapies for PCD patients.

The BEAT-PCD Conference & Training School took place in Lisbon (Portugal), between 6th and 9th of February 2018. 122 experts from 20 countries met during the 4-day conference to discuss the latest developments in PCD research and clinical care. Participants enjoyed a mixture of plenary sessions, oral presentations, poster discussions and expert-led workshops, intercalated with opportunities to network with professionals from different backgrounds and countries during coffee breaks, lunch and the conference dinner.

The training school held the 1st early-career researcher (ECR) networking forum on Wednesday, 7th February. 44 ECRs met to discuss the various opportunities available through BEAT-PCD, including joining the newsletter and conference proceedings writing teams, assisting on organising the next conference and applying for short-term scientific missions.

The joint Conference & Training School was attended by more than 120 attendees from 20 different countries who networked and shared their research over a 4 day meeting. The meeting took place in Valencia (Spain). This meeting was highly interactive, including state of the art lectures, poster sessions, short oral presentations, workshops, small group discussions and interactive plenary sessions. It was an opportunity to increase the knowledge in the PCD field, to establish new collaborations and studies, as well as to learn from people who had undertaken Short Term Scientific missions.

Program

The program can be found here

The Training School mission was to deliver teaching and intensive training and practical skills on novel and emerging aspects of basic and clinical science relevant to BEAT-PCD’s objectives. The meeting took place at the Hopital Trousseau in Paris (France). A combination of lectures and workshops were held to familiarise and expose young researchers to expertise through an interactive approach, building on the programme developed at the Young Researchers Meeting in Bern in 2015. This second meeting brought together experts in the field to lead the programme alongside emerging young researchers gaining experience by chairing and organising sessions and workshops relevant to their areas of interest. It was also an opportunity for early stage researchers who had attended short term scientific missions to present their experiences and what they learned.

BEAT-PCD meeting

BEAT-PCD held a meeting at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London (UK) on 3rd September, attended by more than 100 people working in PCD. Four state-of-the-art presentations on two selected topics were followed by a series of short presentations and discussions on collaborative projects led by BEAT-PCD members. The 2016 ERS Congress displayed the breadth and depth of PCD research: 7 oral presentations and over 30 posters emphasised the high volume of quality work by BEAT-PCD members. In Addition, PCD was featured at one of the ERS symposiums, which outlined the latest developments in PCD research, with a particular focus on the recently published ERS PCD task force recommendations for diagnostic testing (see below).

ERS Task Force for Diagnosis of PCD

The ERS guidelines for the diagnosis of PCD were presented at a symposium at ERS Congress in London (UK). Patient representative, Fiona Copeland explained the importance of an accurate diagnosis from the patients’ perspective and described the barriers to obtaining a diagnosis for this rare ‘orphan’ lung disease. Claudia Kuehni discussed the clinical features that should prompt referral for diagnostic testing and provided evidence that diagnosis is often missed or delayed. Heymut Orman explained the genetic basis of PCD. Jane Lucas presented Task Force’s recommendations for the commonly used screening and diagnostic tests: nasal nitric oxide, high-speed video microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, genotyping and immunofluorescence staining of ciliary proteins.

Joint meeting of BEAT-PCD and BESTCILIA

Eighty-two delegates with an interest in PCD met in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) at the ERS Congres 2015. The meeting included state-of-the-art talks and discussion about research coordinated through the two projects. The speakers and delegates were from diverse backgrounds bringing together the expertise needed to develop clinical and research agendas to impact patients; pulmonologists, ENT, diagnostic scientists, geneticists, basic scientists, patient representatives, social scientists.

The Inaugural Conference of BEAT-PCD was held at Chilworth Manor near Southampton (UK) in December 2015. The conference attracted 96 scientists, clinicians, allied health professionals, industrial partners and patient representatives from 20 countries. The BEAT-PCD Inaugural Conference successfully brought together clinical PCD specialists (paediatricians and adult pulmonologists, ENT, physiotherapists, specialist nurses) and scientists from varied backgrounds (genetics, imaging, cell biology, microbiology, bioinformatics). The multidisciplinary conference provided an interactive platform for research groups to exchange ideas through a programme of lectures, poster presentations, breakout sessions and workshops.

The first Young Researchers Meeting in PCD took place at the Univeristy of Bern in Bern (Switzerland) on 12-13th of March 2015. This 2-day meeting gathered over 40 attendees, including 15 presenters from multidisciplinary backgrounds, including epidemiologists, clinicians, basic scientists, diagnosticians, engineers, allied health professionals and social scientists.