Dr Martin Barr, Andrew Binns, Dr Amanda McCann and Dr Naoise Synott

Moreover, this interaction was further enhanced during my poster presentation allowing me to initiate new collaborations and receive feedback on my research on DNA repair in NSCLC. One particular highlight of the conference opening was the humorous (yet very true!) portrayal of ‘Love and fear in the lab’ by Professor Uri Alon from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel who delivered a talk, on guitar, about the emotional and subjective side of choosing science as a career!

During the course of the conference, a number of plenary talks were delivered by various European investigators leading innovative and discovery cancer research programmes at their relevant Institutions. Professor Karen Vousden, Cancer Research UK’s Chief Scientist and a Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute was this year’s recipient of the Mike Price Gold Medal Award, a biennial award recognizing a senior researcher who has made exceptional contributions to the progress of cancer research in Europe. She presented some of their novel findings in relation to the regulation of tumour suppressor gene p53 and novel targeted treatments that are currently being developed as novel cancer treatments.

The Pezcoller Foundation-EACR Cancer Researcher Award Lecture was delivered by Professor Jan Korbel, EMBL, Germany who presented work from the Korbel laboratory demonstrating how combining experimental and computational approaches, including single-cell sequencing technology, can be used to unravel determinants and consequences of germline and somatic genetic variation. Professor Korbel and his group are among the pioneers in the utilization of cloud computing to enable sharing and processing of largescale omics data.

The end of this enlightening and successful conference was marked by the EACR 50th Anniversary & Congress Dinner, where the very impressive National Maritime Museum marked the setting for this cultural and social event. A great evening was had among fellow European and Irish cancer researchers, including our very own IACR President, Professor Amanda McCann.

In addition to presenting my work at the conference I attended a number of excellent talks from an array of internationally acclaimed invited speakers. The theme of the Congress was ‘From Fundamental Insight to Rational Cancer Treatment’, covering the journey of discovery and development ‘from bench to bedside’. As a translational cancer research, I was delighted that the Congress covered focused on this area. In particular I eager to attend the Mike Price Gold Medal Award Lecture entitled ‘How does p53 impact cancer development? Let me count the ways’’ by Prof Karen Vousden, Chief Scientist at CRUK and Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute. Professor Vousden’s research focuses on the tumour suppressor protein p53, which was the protein of interest for my doctoral studies. Prof Vousden’s presentation did not disappoint and as the final talk of the meeting, it finished the EACR Congress on a high for me.

Overall, I found the meeting highly informative, with a diverse group of attendees who are friendly, eager to discuss their work and proud cancer researchers. I am grateful to now be part of the EACR community and I look forward to EACR 2020!