Cryotherapy is going well!

Report of the IIR Deputy Director General, Ina Colombo, on the 3rd IIR Conference on Cold Applications in Life Sciences which was held in St Petersburg in Russia.

On 12-14 September 2018 took place the 3rd IIR Conference on Cold Applications in Life Sciences in St Petersburg (Russia). This event gathered 40 academics and industrials to discuss and present their progress on cryotherapy, cryoconservation and cryosurgery. The significant amount of publications on the subject of Whole Body Cryotherapy demonstrates that this technology is currently of growing interest. Of the 40 attendees, between one-third and one-half were students.


"I have been quite occupied with Whole Body Cryotherapy sessions, therefore I could not attend the sessions on Cryosurgery (6 papers), reports Ina Colombo.


The new IIR Working Group on Whole Body Cryotherapy chaired by B. Dugué held their first meeting and the members were invited to exchange and discuss about the objectives, targets and realistic achievable deliverables. The next meeting should take place during the next IIR congress in Montreal.


It is important to highlight that this series of conferences has the highest female participation rate. Indeed, women accounted for 33% of CALS 2016 attendees in Dresden (Germany), and 23% this year. The average participation of women in IIR conferences is less than 10%.