Andrew John Leese
Queen Mary University of London, UK

https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.93.19

6 September 2013, Queen Mary University of London, UK

Early Career Scientists networking at a YLS poster session 

The Young Life Scientists’ (YLS) Symposium is an annual scientific conference co-sponsored by the Biochemical Society, the British Pharmacological Society and The Physiological Society. Organised by young scientists, for young scientists, the YLS symposia provide a great opportunity for students and early career postdocs to come together, present their work, and network with other scientists in their field. Each symposium focusses on a separate scientific theme with this year’s event, hosted at Queen Mary University of London, entitled: ‘Cardiovascular Medicine: Bridging Basic and Clinical Researchers’. This represents a timely and significant subject as heart disease continues to represent a leading cause of morbidity and mortality across the world, highlighting the need to produce new innovative drugs and improve existing therapies. Effective translational medicine – the process in which discoveries made in the laboratory are applied directly in the clinic – is undoubtedly central to achieving this goal. This requires collaboration across multiple disciplines, which is a practice that the organising committee were keen to encourage amongst the next generation of research scientists at this year’s symposium. In this light, both basic scientists and clinicians in the field of cardiovascular research were invited to give an oral or poster presentation with the emphasis of relating their work to the wider context of translational medicine and communicating in a manner that could be easily understood by a diverse research audience.

Indeed, the YLS symposium 2013 proved to be a massive success, with more than 65 of the 150 registered delegates submitting an abstract for presentation. Both the oral presentation and poster sessions were highly engaging, prompting plentiful questions and lively scientific discussions. This extended to the keynote lectures, given by Ingrid Fleming, Rhian Touyz and Mike Grocott, all of whom kindly shared their pioneering cardiovascular research and interacted superbly with the young delegates. Another highlight of the day’s programme was the satellite sessions, which focussed on encouraging young scientists to pursue a career in medical research and included advice on how to write a telling CV, as well as a talk by a research advisor from the British Heart Foundation detailing fellowship positions for cardiovascular scientists. The day ended with a fun networking event and evening reception, capping a hugely informative, interactive, and enjoyable symposium.