Professor Michael Manns, recognized expert in the fields of hepatology, gastroenterology and endocrinology at the School of Medicine of Hannover, Germany, has given the 17th Vall d’Hebron University Hospital Annual Conference. In his lecture, titled ““From viral hepatitis to hepatocyte transplantation – examples for the benefits of scientific networking”, Manns talked about the positives outcomes of national and international collaboration in liver diseases research, and the last advances and challenges in transplants. With the annual conference has finished the 7th Scientific Session, in which 52 researchers have presented their works in the categories of doctoral students, postdocs, residents and nurses. The award for the best oral communication in the predoctoral student category was for Mireia Campos, from the Neurovascular Diseases group, for her study ‘Eficàcia i seguretat de la sinvastatina com a tractament en la fase aguda de la isquèmia cerebral’. This year a total of 18 predoctal posters were showcased in flash presentations. The winner of this category was Daniel Massó, from the Antitumoral Therapies in mice at VHIO, for the poster ‘Inhibiting BTK function as therapeutic strategy in pancreatic cancer’. In the category of postdocs the winner was Dr. Beatriz Morancho, from the Growth Factors and Cancer group at VHIO, with the presentation ‘A dominant-negative N-terminal fragment of HER2 frequently expressed in breast cancers’. In the residents category were awarded Marina Garcia, from CRIPS, and Cristina López, from the Infectious Diseases group, for their presentations ‘Niveles plasmáticos de ST2 como predictor de mortalidad en pacientes con Síndrome de distrés respiratorio agudo’ and ‘Liver-biopsy related infections in liver transplant recipients’, respectively. Finally in the nursing category, the prize was for Marisa Cebrian, for her study ‘Els professionals de salut davant el seguiment de tractaments de llarga durada en adolescents’. A total of 4,000 euros have been granted thanks to the sponsorship of Roche.  Besides the awards, Obra Social 'la Caixa' granted the post MIR Fernando María Salvador, from the Infectious Diseases group.  The Catalan minister of health, Dr. Boi Ruiz, closed the Annual Conference highlighting the cutting edge research which is carried out at VHIR, and the government’s commitment to maintain the inversion in Catalan research centers of excellence. Before the award ceremony and the conference, VHIR's director, Dr. Joan Comella, presented the annual results of the institute, emphasizing the high number of papers published in 2013 and the difference between the incomes from international projects that, for the first time, are higher than the incomes from national projects. In the Annual Conference also participated the responsible of the Conselleria de SAlud, Dr. Gabriel Capellà, Dr. Jaume Roigé, assistant director of HUVH, Montserrat Artigas, nursing director of HUVH, Dr. Maria Josep Cerqueria, head of teaching coordinator of HUVH, Dr. Ricard Pujol, research consultant at ICS, Carlos Manchado, head of innovation at Roche, and Isabe Adell, director of banking and institutions at Obra Social ‘la Caixa’. "http://www.vhir.org/activitats/relacioactivitats_detall.asp?Idioma=en&mv1=4&mv2=1&mh1=0&mh2=0&mh3=0&mh4=0&ms=0&any=2013&num=220&RSS=" - Programme of the 7th Scientific Session "http://www.vhir.org/activitats/relacioactivitats_detall.asp?Idioma=en&mv1=4&mv2=1&mh1=0&mh2=0&mh3=0&mh4=0&ms=0&any=2013&num=220&RSS=" "http://www.vhir.org/activitats/relacioactivitats_detall.asp?Idioma=en&mv1=4&mv2=1&mh1=0&mh2=0&mh3=0&mh4=0&ms=0&any=2013&num=232&RSS=" - Programme and video of the 17th HUVH Annual Conference