BSCB-BSDB Spring Conference - Day 1

This month, we have a report on the British Society of Cell Biology and British Society of Developmental Biology joint spring meeting, written by the ever-awesome Ret Mutant, who blogs at Clear Sci.

Name: Ret Mutant
Location: Kent University, Canterbury
Date: 27th April, BSCB/BSDB joint Spring Meeting - Day 1

This is my first report from the 4-day British Society of Cell Biology and British Society of Developmental Biology joint spring meeting. I will start by saying that this is my first real conference so forgive me if I get enthusiastic about the mundane or benign.

We arrived on a glorious Wednesday afternoon at the University of Kent campus overlooking the historic city of Canterbury and providing fantastic views of the famous cathedral.

The conference opened with the graduate symposium, showcasing the work of selected graduate students from the many submitted abstracts. This included work from Bristol on wnt signalling and trafficking, from Bath on actin dynamics in cell migration and from Edinburgh investigating neural stem cells.

Most exciting were the plenary lectures organised by the societies. This year the BSDB (sponsored by Development) invited Mark Krasnow from Stanford who gave a thrilling presentation on the stereotypical nature and cellular mechanisms involved in lung branching during development, particularly observing cell differentiation in alveoli and the development of lung cancers. The BSCB chose Graham Warren from Vienna to give an engaging lecture on organelle biogenesis, particularly looking at methods of replicating the golgi during cell division, focusing on the simplified system present in T.brucei.

The high point of the day was of course the evening social, with a decidedly science themed pub-quiz, which we did surprisingly well in; managing to not only identify Tim Hunt and his work on cyclins, but also managing to recall the full meaning of the acronym TARDIS. Unfortunately we were pipped to the post by a group of PIs - just missing out on the coveted stuffed tortoise - kindly provided by one of the event sponsors.