Report on the 2^nd international molecular biosciences PhD and postdoc conference 2023: The emerging challenge – environmental impacts on human health

Abstract

The 2^nd International FEBS‐IUBMB‐ENABLE Molecular Biosciences PhD and Postdoc Conference was held from 23^rd to 25^th November 2023 in Cologne, Germany. Over 240 participants from 31 different countries came together at the University of Cologne to follow the two‐day scientific symposium and the career day. This year's topic was “The emerging challenge – environmental impacts on human health”. In four different sessions, eight renowned keynote speakers presented their current research. By offering flash and short talks, 39 participants were able to present their work in front of a big audience. Scientific exchange and networking were encouraged during the two poster sessions, during breaks, and the conference dinner. On the Career Day, a career fair was held and participants could attend workshops as well as career chats to improve their job prospects. The success of the series will be continued during the next conference edition: “Artificial Intelligence – Reshaping biomedical and healthcare research”, which will take place 4^th to 6^th December 2024 in Singapore.

The 2nd International FEBS‐IUBMB‐ENABLE Molecular Biosciences PhD and Postdoc Conference was held from 23^rd to 25^th November in Cologne, Germany. Over 240 participants from all over the globe came together at the University of Cologne to follow the two‐day Scientific Symposium and the Career Day of the conference titled: “The emerging challenge ‐ environmental impacts on human health”.

Abbreviations

FEBS

Federation of European Biochemical Societies

IBiS

Institute of Biomedicine of Seville

IRB

Institute for Research in Biomedicine

IUBMB

International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

LOC

Local Organizing Committee

NNF CPR

Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research

Radboudumc

Radboud Research Institute for Medical Innovation

SEMM

European School of Molecular Medicine

SOC

Scientific Organizing Committee

UoC

University of Cologne

The FEBS‐IUBMB‐ENABLE conference series is a joint initiative of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS), the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB), and four leading biomedical research institutes across Europe: the Institute for Research in Biomedicine—IRB (Barcelona, Spain), the Radboud Research Institute for Medical Innovation—Radboudumc (Nijmegen, The Netherlands), the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research—NNF CPR (Copenhagen, Denmark), and the European School of Molecular Medicine—SEMM (Milan, Italy), together with the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville—IBiS (Seville, Spain), where the 2022 event was held, and the University of Cologne—UoC (Cologne, Germany), where the 2023 event took place.

ENABLE started as an initiative to promote European excellence in biomedical science with an annual three‐day international event that included a scientific symposium, career development sessions and outreach activities. After the initial funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 initiative for the organisation of four conferences (2017–2021), FEBS and IUBMB—which were already involved as sponsors in ENABLE conferences—partnered since 2022 to continue this initiative and support the development of young researchers. The FEBS‐IUBMB‐ENABLE conference series is unique, because the organising committee is composed of PhD students and postdocs from the core institutes as well as the hosting institute. Coordinators from the core and hosting institute as well as FEBS and IUBMB representatives provided guidance during planning of the event (Table 1).

Table 1.

Members of the Scientific Organising Committee (SOC), the coordinators and the Local Organising Committee (LOC).

SOC		Coordinators		LOC
Franziska Baumann (SOC Chair)	UoC	Dr. Isabell Witt (Scientific Coordinator GSfBS)	UoC	Elena Heuten (LOC Scientific Symposium Chair)	Mert Mestanoglu
Andrea Mariani (SOC Vice Chair)	SEMM	Dr. Debora Grosskopf‐Kroiher (CMMC Managing Director and Scientific Coordinator)	UoC	Dr. Michaela Höhne (LOC Outreach Chair)	Julie Mudler
Ximena Hildebrandt (SOC Sustainability Chair)	UoC	Kathy Joergens (GSfBS office)	UoC	Susanne Steigleder (LOC Sponsors & Career Day Chair)	Tim Schlegel
Giulia Perticari (SOC Speaker Chair	SEMM	Dr. Francesca Fiore (Graduate Office Coordinator)	SEMM	Dr. Danae Angelidaki	Besarta Thaqi
Teodora Grigore (SOC Communication Chair)	Radboudumc	Dr. Leyre Caracuel (Academic Coordinator)	IRB	Kristie Bariboloka
Dr. Katerina Nastou (SOC Sponsoring Chair)	CPR	Dr. Moreno Papetti (Research Program Coordinator)	CPR	Sarah Buchholz
Jonas Gockel	Radboudumc	Dr. Marie Sofie Yoo Tollenaere‐Larsen (Research Program Coordinator)	CPR	Dr. Roberta Colapietro
Mikaela Koutrouli	CPR	Dr. Clasien Oomen (Scientific Policy Advisor)	Radboudumc	Dr. Deborah Delbue da Silva
Luis Rodríguez	IRB	Dr. María Herreras Casado (International Project Manager)	IBiS	Patrizia Kroll
Marcos Farina	IRB	Prof. Dr. Irene Díaz Moreno (Chair of the Careers of Young Scientists Committee)	FEBS	Christina Efraimoglou
Aida Amador Álvarez	IBiS	Prof. Dr. Jerka Dumić (Chair of the Integration and Networking Committee)	FEBS	Adrian Gackstatter
Dr. Francisco José Ostos Marcos	IBiS	Prof. Dr. Ilona Concha Grabinger (Chair for Congresses and Focused Meetings)	IUBMB	Dr. Nourhan Hassan
Dr. Marta Reyes Corral	FEBS	Prof. Dr. Lim Yang Mooi (Chair for Education and Training)	IUBMB	Schinya Ibrahim
Prof. Dr. James Murphy	IUBMB

After the success of the 1^st International FEBS‐IUBMB‐ENABLE conference that took place in Seville (Spain) in 2022, the 2^nd International FEBS‐IUBMB‐ENABLE conference was held in the lively student city of Cologne (Germany) from the 23^rd to 25^th of November 2023. The conference took place at the University of Cologne (UoC). The UoC covers a broad field of disciplines with a strong focus in Life Sciences and has a long history of intense scientific and strategic collaboration that connects basic research to translational medicine. The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FMNS) as well as the Faculty of Medicine (FM) along with the University Hospital Cologne (UHC) have developed a vibrant interdisciplinary Life Science Campus consisting of the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC), the Cluster of Excellence Cellular Stress Responses in Aging‐associated Diseases (CECAD), the Cologne Center for Genomics (CCG), as well as the Max Planck Institutes for Biology of Ageing (MPI‐AGE) and Metabolism Research (MPI‐MR) along with seven collaborative research centres. The whole conference series is entirely organised by PhD students and postdocs, who take care of the scientific symposium, the career day and all the activities. The Scientific Organising Committee (SOC) was an international group of people composed of two representatives of each core institute (CPR, SEMM, IRB, Radboudumc), the 2022 hosting institute (IBiS) and the 2023 hosting institute (UoC), as well as a representative from FEBS and IUBMB. Moreover, the SOC was largely supported by the Local Organizing Committee (LOC), a group of 17 PhDs and postdocs from the UoC, who took care of all the conference logistics, the social programme, and the activities of the Career Day. To support SOC and LOC activities, coordinators from the research institutes, FEBS and IUBMB were appointed.

We tried to financially support participants who applied to join the conference, and thanks to our amazing sponsors and the Cologne graduate schools, we were able to award 37 EU travel grants (each 400€) and 25 non‐EU travel grants (each 900€) to outstanding young scientists. The travel grants allowed many young scientists from all over the world to join the conference. Moreover, IUBMB awarded five travel grants (each 1500$) to African applicants through their Millipore Sigma programme, and the Croatian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (HDBMB) supported three students (each 200€). In the end, we were incredibly proud that 100% of the scientists that applied for a travel grant were awarded one.

The title of this year's conference was “The emerging challenge ‐ environmental impacts on human health”. With this theme, we aimed to draw attention to different aspects of environmental changes and how these can affect humans and other organisms. We welcomed over 240 participants from all parts of the world to Cologne, reaching 31 countries (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.

Participants of the 2023 FEBS‐IUBMB‐ENABLE conference. (A) A group picture of all the participants in the conference venue lecture hall building. (B) A map showing the distribution of participants of the conference. Countries highlighted in blue represent participants' countries of residence. The 2023 FEBS‐IUBMB‐ENABLE conference reached 31 countries worldwide.

Pre‐conference and outreach activities

Before the conference started, the Outreach team of the LOC organised activities to bring scientists and the general public closer together. This included a workshop for kindergarten children to learn about the danger of UV light on our skin. Furthermore, they organised a pub quiz about the environment and pub talks by students from the hosting institute for the general public, where the entrance fee was used to plant trees in the ENABLE forest. The topics for the pub talks had a wide range: “Green infrastructure: a lifeline/necessity for climate change adaptation in cities” (Minka Aduse‐Poku, PhD candidate, Institute for Didactics in Biology), “Time to take time seriously – how the environment is affecting our internal clock” (Dr. Roberta Colapietro, PhD candidate, CECAD), “Age is just a number: epigenetic clues to extending reproductive lifespan” (Tahira Aslan, PhD candidate, CECAD), “Cheers to sun‐kissed skin: unravelling the UV mystery!” (Nihan Erden, PhD candidate, CECAD), and “The good, the bad, and the tasteless – what's the deal with pollution, really…” “(Dr. Philip Antczak, Junior group leader, CMMC). Both the pub quiz and pub talks were very popular and sold out.

Instead of a traditional city tour, a brewery tour through Cologne's oldest Kölsch brewery was organised where participants could learn more about beer brewing and the German purity law. As a pre‐conference event, a laboratory waste quiz was also organised where participants could test their knowledge about energy use and waste production in the laboratory.

Scientific symposium

The conference started with a two‐day scientific symposium. We invited eight internationally renowned keynote speakers to present their research in four different sessions: Computational biology, Complex diseases, Novel experimental model systems, and Epigenetics and the exposome. Each keynote was followed by flash talks and short talks on the session's subject. Participants selected for a flash talk had the opportunity to very quickly highlight their work in 3 min in front of the whole audience, while participants selected for a short talk had a more structured 10 min presentation. By offering both types of talk, we could offer 39 participants the chance to present their research in front of a big audience. At the end of both days of the scientific symposium, 105 participants presented their research in a poster session.

The first day of the scientific symposium started out with the official Opening Ceremony of the event, where we formally welcomed the conference participants. We had various representatives introducing the conference and saying a few words about the conference series and supporting partners. We had different speeches from the conference organisers, the University of Cologne representatives Dr. Isabell Witt and Dr. Debora Grosskopf‐Kroiher, the FEBS Secretary General Prof. Dr. Miguel A. De la Rosa, the IUBMB President Prof. Dr. Alexandra Newton and the Vice Rector of Research of the University of Cologne, Prof. Dr. Claus Cursiefen.

Dr. Fernanda Pinheiro, group leader at the Human Technopole (Milan, Italy), opened the first session on Computational biology presenting her work on mathematical modelling of antibiotics resistance evolution. Unfortunately, Fernanda had to give her keynote lecture online, due to unforeseen sickness. After that, flash talk awardees Indranil Singh, Dr. Rukayat Abiola Abdulsalam, Alba Sala and David Farré‐Gil highlighted their work briefly, followed by two short talks by Macarena López‐Sánchez and Dr. Carmen Gordillo‐Vásquez. Before the next session, participants enjoyed some coffee and pastries and got the chance to network. Dr. Serena Nik‐Zainal, Prof. of Genomic Medicine and Bioinformatics (Cambridge, UK), closed the session on Computational biology with her talk on how to exploit mutagenesis in cancer genomes. We had two flash talks by Dewei Hu and Stefano Roncelli, followed by two short talks by Claudia Robens and Víctor Manuel de la Oliva Roque to conclude the morning session. After lunch in the main hall, we kicked off the second session titled Insights into complex diseases with a lecture by Dr. Pascal Miesen, Assistant Professor of the Medical Microbiology Dept., (Radboudumc, Netherlands), on molecular determinants of virus transmission by mosquitoes. Similar to the morning, we had three flash talks by Dora Kolić, María Dolores Serrano‐Martín, and Andrei‐Sabin Popa, followed by two short talks by Dr. Mario Cocorullo and Derviş Birim. It was time for another coffee break and brief networking among participants. Dr. Dirk Haller, Full Professor in Nutrition and Immunology, School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan of the Technical University of Munich (Freising, Germany), was the last keynote speaker to present on the first day, with a talk on the functional complexity of the human gut microbiome. We concluded the session with four flash talks by Dr. Marlid García, Dr. Hülya Irmak Aksan, Oana‐Ana‐Maria Mardare, and Elena Mirela Lamba and two short talks by Daniel Láinez‐González and Dr. Verónica Miguel. To end the first day of the scientific symposium, we organised a two‐hour long poster session where half of the researchers had the opportunity to present their work in a more relaxed environment while enjoying some finger food and Kölsch beer (Fig. 2D).

Fig. 2.

Impressions of the 2023 FEBS‐IUBMB‐ENABLE conference. (A) Coffee break. (B) Announcement of the SOC Sustainability Chair Ximena Hildebrandt in the Auditorium. (C) Career Chat. (D) Poster session. (E) The SOC, LOC and local coordinators.

Day two of the scientific symposium started with a session on Novel experimental model systems and a lecture by Dr. María Bernabeu, group leader at EMBL (Barcelona, Spain), on malaria pathogenesis. Similar to day one, we had four flash talks given by Dr. Marta Zaninello, Dr. Maria Isabel Álvarez, Melania Lazzari and Marcel Zimmeck, followed by two short talks by Carmela Cela Rodríguez and Amada El‐Sabeh. After some coffee and more networking, we had the second keynote lecture of the session given by Dr. Solenn Patalano, Group Leader at the Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Research “Alexander Fleming” (Vari, Greece), on mechanisms of phenotypic plasticity of social insects. Christina Efraimoglou, Dr. José Daniel Camino, Bayan Kharrat and Nur Cengiz Winter gave a flash talk and Dr. Rãzvan Ștefan Boiangiu and Abhay Tharmatt a short talk. After the lunch break (Fig. 2A), Dr. Martin Howard, Prof. of the Dept. of Computational and Systems Biology at John Innes Centre (Norwich, UK), opened the last session of Epigenetics and the exposome with a lecture on how plants can measure and remember temperature signals. After the talk, we had the last four flash talks given by Dr. Meltem Uyaner Kan, Jazib Shafiq, Dr. María Quintana Verdaguer and Femke van Hout, and the last two short talks given by Manuel Lessi and Claudia Bigas. It was time for the last coffee break of the day before going back to the last lecture of the day. Dr. David Aylor, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Deputy Director of the Center for Human Health and the Environment at the NC State University (North Carolina, USA), was the last keynote speaker of the conference and gave a talk on how early life exposure of TCDD can shape epigenetic profiles across the life‐course. We concluded day two with another two‐hour poster session where the other half of the participants could present their work, always paired with some snacks and soft drinks. The second day of the scientific symposium ended with the conference dinner, which took place in Cologne's oldest Kölsch brewery. This also gave attendees the chance to network more and talk to the keynote speakers in a casual environment. A quick recap of some wonderful moments during the conference can be seen in Fig. 2.

Career day

The FEBS‐IUBMB‐ENABLE conference series aims to not only foster scientific discussion among young scientists, but also to improve their future career prospects by including a career day as part of the three‐day conference. Throughout the day, participants could attend the opportunity fair and get in touch with different companies. Very popular also were the different workshops that were offered, which were ranked relevant or very relevant by 77% of people and given 4/5 or 5/5 points by 81% (Fig. 3). The workshop topics included improving research quality with “Biases in Science” (Prof. Dr. Niels Gehring, UoC) and “How to identify and generate robust data?” (Prof. Dr. Martin Michel, Johannes Gutenberg University). Furthermore, thinking about applications for your own research was discussed in the workshop “Research Canvas – Identify the application potential of your research” (Bernd Rathmer, Centre for Entrepreneurship and Transfer, TU Dortmund). In line with the overall theme of the conference and our efforts to increase sustainability, we offered the workshop “How to make your lab more sustainable?” (Dr. Tomo Šarić, Dr. Anna Schmitt, and Dr. Johanna Stachelscheid from the Gamma Sustainability Group, UoC). A very important topic for researchers is of course publishing results, which the workshop “How to successfully publish your work?” (Valerie Teng Broug, publisher at Elsevier) covered. PhDs can be very demanding for mental health, so “Overcome imposter syndrome for success and lower burnout risk” (Dr. Michaela Höhne, Elanto Science) aimed to provide tools to feel more confident again. To better prepare for the job market after the PhD, two workshops were offered: “Providing evidence for the skills that stay with you” (Dr. Jörg Stange, hfp consulting) and “Skills Canvas – navigating career paths beyond the PhD” (Dr. Isabelle Schiffer, Gateway Cologne).

Fig. 3.

Participant overview and survey results. (A) Gender distribution and (B) occupation distribution, (C) expectations for the conference, (D) relevance of keynote lectures, (E) relevance of workshops, and (F) improvement of job prospects after attending the conference; x‐axis ranges from 5 (highest) to 1 (lowest). Results from an anonymous satisfaction survey conducted through the conference app after the conference, n = 65 responses.

This year, participants could attend different career chats (Fig. 2C) to talk to people in‐ and outside of academia to learn about possible career paths: Dr. Anna Euteneuer (Social Media/Online Editor at UoC), Dr. Jana Göbel (Research Associate at the Department for Drug Assessment, at IQWiG), Dr. Jörg Stange (CPO and consultant at hfp consulting), Juanita Perera (Editor at FEBS Letters), Dr. Markus Doll (Patent Attorney at Kroher‐Strobel Intellectual Property Law), Dr. Ernesto Llamas (Creator of ‘Sketching Science’ and Researcher), Dr. Joshua Kohl (Project Manager R&D Bayer Business Consulting), Dr. Vlad Averkov (Safety Manager at BioNTech), Dr. Reinier Proséé (Community Manager at preLights), Dr. Sebastian Oehler (Senior Scientist Philochem AG) and Prof. Dr. Jerka Dumić (Chair of the FEBS Integration and Networking Committee).

After all workshops and career chats, all participants were invited to the Closing Ceremony. Susanne Steigleder (LOC) opened the ceremony by thanking our platinum sponsors ZS|Discovery, hfp consulting and Miltenyi Biotec for supporting the conference. Afterwards, the 3^rd FEBS‐IUBMB‐ENABLE conference, which will be held in Singapore in 2024, was announced by Dr. Bing Liang Alvin Chew, Chair of the Scientific Organizing Committee. Then, Dr. Patrick Penndorf (FEBS Junior Section), introduced the new activities of the Junior group for 2024 and was followed by Dr. Vlastimil Kulda (FEBS) who talked about the FEBS Young Scientist Forum (YSF) and the 48^th FEBS Congress 2024, which will be held in Milan. Next, Prof. Dr. Ilona Concha Grabinger (IUBMB Executive Committee member) and Prof. Dr. Alexandra Newton (IUBMB President) announced the 26^th IUBMB Congress, which will be held in Melbourne. After this news, we announced the participants that won a prize for their scientific work. We selected the three best posters, three best flash talks and three best short talks. These prizes have been kindly sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Program Molecular Medicine (IPMM), Graduate School for Biological Sciences (GSfBS), Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC), FEBS Open Bio, IUBMB BioFactors and ZS|Discovery. Moreover, we announced the winners for the Treasure hunt and the lab waste art contest. After the prize's announcement, Ximena Hildebrandt, the SOC chair for Sustainability, showed the impact that the conference had made on the creation of the ENABLE forest, helping three major reforestation projects in Tanzania, Brazil and Bolivia (Fig. 2B). After three intense days of exciting science, all that was left was to say goodbye and see you again in the next FEBS‐IUBMB‐ENABLE conference.

Sustainability

In line with the title of the conference “The emerging challenge: environmental impacts on human health”, the organising team implemented different measures for a more sustainable event. These include serving only vegetarian/vegan food and opting for reusable dishes, cutlery, mugs, and glasses. To avoid unnecessary printing of the programme and abstract book, we chose a conference app, which allowed easy networking between participants and clear and direct communications to participants. Thanks to the sustainable conference grant from the Company of Biologists, we could use plastic‐free badges and name tags made from seed paper, which can be planted after the conference. Additionally, the grant money was used to kickstart the ENABLE forest to help with the reforestation of the Amazonia. With our partner Tree Nation, we were able to plant one tree for every participant.

This year, in addition to prizes for the best short talk, flash talk, and poster, we also organised a laboratory waste art contest, encouraging participants to upcycle laboratory waste.

The future of the FEBS‐IUBMB‐ENABLE conference series

With an incredible team (Fig. 2E), over 240 young scientists from 31 countries, outstanding keynote speakers, and three intense days of science, networking, and career development, the 2^nd FEBS‐IUBMB‐ENABLE Conference was a success. This year, we had around 60% female participants and mostly PhDs and postdocs attending the conference (Fig. 3A and B). The conference exceeded or met the expectations of 90% of participants (Fig. 3C). Keynote speaker lectures were either very relevant or relevant for 84% of participants (Fig. 3D), short talks for 81%, flash talks for 83% and the poster session for 88% of participants (data not shown). Of the people that attended workshops, over 95% rated them as either very relevant or relevant (Fig. 3E). Overall, more than 70% think participating in the conference improved their soft skills and job prospects (Fig. 3F). To continue the effort of organising excellent scientific conferences, the 3^rd FEBS‐IUBMB‐ENABLE conference will move for the first time outside Europe to the Asian continent and be held from 4^th‐6^th December 2024 in Singapore at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. Under the theme “Artificial intelligence – Reshaping biomedical and healthcare research” the SOC, led by Dr. Bing Liang Alvin Chew (NTU Singapore) and Kaustuv Ghosh (IRB) is already busy planning the next edition of the conference series.