ELSO MeetingsELSO 2003

On a roll: the annual ELSO congress comes to Dresden

Carol Featherstone

The ELSO congress became an annual event this year when the third meeting took place in Dresden (Germany) over five gloriously sunny days in September.

From 21 - 24 September, almost 2000 delegates from 41 countries gathered in the Kulturpalast the massive cubiform cultural centre dating from Dresdens former communist era to hear the latest news from the world of molecular life sciences at ELSO2003.

There were over 150 speakers between Nobel Laureate Sydney Brenners opening lecture on Saturday evening and the last mini symposium speakers on Wednesday afternoon. And another 70 scientists spoke at the 11 fringe sessions that took place before the main meeting on Saturday.

The hallmark of the ELSO congresses are the buzzing poster sessions when students, postdocs and group leaders alike have chance to rub shoulders and talk about their latest work in progress. ELSO2003, held in collaboration with the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM), was no exception with around 500 posters presented over the course of four days. Two poster authors were selected by the chairpersons of each mini symposium to present their work as a talk, and the three best-looking posters were awarded prizes.

The poster sessions were accompanied by over 50 busy exhibitor booths demonstrating their latest products directly to their most interesting customers the scientists at the bench who are always on the look out for faster, more efficient, higher resolution, more sensitive ways to get those precious results. More...) ?>