I was honoured to be awarded the EACR Young Scientist (Junior Category) Award at the Irish Association of Cancer Research Annual meeting in February 2018. As a result I received free registration to The 25th Biennial Congress of the European Association for Cancer Research which celebrated the EACR’s 50th Anniversary Year. This landmark Congress took place in the RAI Convention Centre in Amsterdam, from 30 June to 3 July 2018.
The EACR Congress brings together 1,800 basic, preclinical and translational researchers from across the full breadth of research fields, providing an excellent opportunity to interact with fellow cancer researchers and even form new collaborations. I was lucky enough to be selected to present my research in a poster form at the meeting.
During my allotted time I was visited by a number of researchers from across Europe. This provided a wonderful opportunity for me to both discuss and evaluate my research. With the exchange of emails and new ideas for experiments, I was eager to return to the lab and explore my project further after this session!
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!