The Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences (NCMLS) is a leading multidisciplinary research center in the Netherlands. NCML consists of the domain of molecular mechanisms of disease and particularly in the fields of molecular medicine, cell biology and translational research.

From 2007, NCML has organized a yearly international symposium. This year's symposium entitled "Pattern Recognition Receptors: seeing the enemy" was held on November 5-6, 2009. In the symposium, Prof. Akira gave the closing key-note lecture reviewing pattern recognition by Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and cytoplasmic receptors.

Further, Prof. Akira was awarded Hans Bloemendal Medal. This award commemorates Prof. Hans Bloemendal who has made significant contributions to the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology. Previous awardees include Nobel laureates Aaron Ciechanover and Peter Agre.

- Website of Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences (NCMLS) is here.

- Report of the symposium is here.