LS² Annual Meeting 2021

The LS² Annual Meeting 2021 was initially planned on-site on 18 and 19 February in Campus Uni Mail – UNIGE, together with its Young Scientists’ Satellite on 17 February. Due the COVID-19 pandemic the organizing committee decided to turn into ONLINE and adapt the program to a virtual format. 

Description, content and main facts of turning the meeting to online version: 

To include participants from different time-zones, it was key to condense the sessions during the afternoons. Also, we slightly reduced the length of talks and symposia to adapt to a virtual format, our priority was to include all the traditional highlights of the annual event: plenary lectures with international speakers, active participation of young researchers, the PIs of Tomorrow competition, Scientific Symposia organized from our sections and partners and the lecture of three Awards (Prix Schläfli, Lelio Orci and Friedrich Miescher Award). 

Moreover, additionally in 2021 we held a workshop organized by The Forum for Genetic Research (SCNAT): “Dialogue on Human Genome Editing”. The workshop was very well received by the participants and it was mentioned as one of the highlights of this edition in our survey. Details and reports of this session can be read here.

The sessions were distributed from 13:00 to 18:45 and included also dedicated slots for visiting e-posters and industry exhibition each day. 

To integrate all that, we used an external virtual platform from where the participants could access to all the content with a single link, a personal login link. The talks could be followed directly from the platform, without the need to open a new window. All talks and sessions were on Zoom. 

The main challenge, as for all online meetings, was to give to the participants the option to interact. We included in our program of the scientific symposia extra time for Q&A and a “chatrooms” space integrated into the virtual platform. Moreover, all e-poster presenters in the gallery and the industry representatives in their virtual booths had private virtual rooms.

With 405 registered participants, the meeting was a successful conference, with an average rating of 4.2 over 5 from the participants and the virtual platform was very well evaluated.

Look at all results of the survey here. 

• Workshop “Dialogue on Human Genome Editing”

The participation of Forum of Genetic Research (SCNAT) with the interactive workshop “Dialogue on Human Genome Editing” was very well received by the participants (average rating of 4.2 over 5) and it was mentioned as one of the highlights of this edition in our survey. It was hosted by Greta Guarda (Università della Svizzera Italiana – CH) and moderated by Anna-Katherina Ehlert (Reatch), the workshop brought to the audience questions such like “How acceptable is somatic human genome editing for research, therapy or enhancement?” or “What is the biggest hope/concern regarding somatic genome editing?”.

The speakers were Jacob Corn (ETH Zurich – CH) and Hervé Chneiweiss (Ecole des Neurosciences, Paris Ile de France), two experts who discussed all considerations and aspects of such a controversial topic. All details and report of the workshop can be seen in the website of the Forum for Genetic Research of SCNAT here. 

 

• Young Scientist’s Symposia - YSS

The active participation of Young Researcher as chairs and speakers is one of the main goals of LS² in all our activities. On the virtual edition of the 2021 Annual Meeting, the Young Scientists’ Satellite was integrated withing the program as Symposia and took place on the first day (February 17) right after the first session with the welcome of the Meeting chair and the first plenary lectures.

Four chairs (Alexandra Bondaz – UNIGE; Noémie Frezel – UZH; Michaël Bachmann – UNIGE; Shalu Jhanwar – UNIBA) and a collaborator (Fanny Georgi – UZH) were in charge of creating a program with topics of interest to the young research community. The exciting sessions of the YSS included a lecture on Science Communication by Lars Dittrich, 5 scientific short talks selected from abstracts and 4 Networking-discussion breakout rooms (1. Career corner: A Stepping Stone for Careers in Life Sciences (Excerpts from the feminno program) / 2. Science Communication with FameLabs / 3. Starts-ups and Entrepreneurship / 4. Academic funding). 

• PIs of Tomorrow Winners

The PIOT Competition brings two winners: The Jury and the Public winner. The first one is selected by the Jury of the competition, a group of young stablished researchers who evaluate the talks, the research statements, trajectory and future research plans of the four finalists. The second one is selected by the public, this year a link to a survey was launched through the chat and the attendees could vote their candidate during a window of 5’ after the session. 

However, all finalists are anyhow winners, first of all they were selected among 66 applicants and had the opportunity to show their research as plenary session during the LS² Annual Meeting; moreover, after the public session, they received personal feedback from the jury. This feedback has an incredibly value for the finalists who pursue a research career. 

The 2021 PIOT session was chaired and organized by: Shalu Jhanwar (UNIBAS), Eleonora Porcu, (UNIL), Mehdi Badaoui (UNIGE) and Myra Chavez-Rosas (UNIBE). 

The jury panel of the 2021 PIOT session was: Guillaume Diss (FMI, Basel), Marlen Knobloch (UNIL), Kelly Tan (UNIBA), Ping-Chih HO (UNIL), Miriam Stoeber (UNIGE), Paula Nunes-Hasler (UNIGE) and    Daniel Huber (UNIGE). 

 

The fact that many of the events and conferences during 2020 and at least the first half of 2021 had to change format from an on-site programme to a virtual format, if not cancelled, does not remove the fact that it was a challenge.  

In this context, for us, the LS² annual meeting is much more than a meeting point, it is also the society's biggest event and a place of knowledge exchange and we took up that challenge with enthusiasm. 

In this context, in which the organisation is different and the challenges go beyond reorganising a schedule, but many technical questions had to be answered quickly, we would like to extend a special thanks, not only to Mario Tschan, chair of the meeting and the chairs of symposia and special sessions for their flexibility, of course to all speakers for accepting our invitation with a new format, to our sponsors for their support but also to the group of volunteers who helped us to coordinate the parallel sessions that our programme presented and have not been mentioned elsewhere on our website.

 

·       405 registered participants from 12 countries

·       3 keynote plenary speakers: Dario Valenzano (Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing – DE), Tony Wyss-Coray (Stanford University - US) and Katrien De Bock (ETH Zürich – CH)

·       10 Scientific Symposia organized by sections/intersections and partners of LS²

·       4 award lectures of the Friedrich-Miescher Award, the Lelio Orci Award and the Prix Schläfli Award

·       22 international invited speakers

·       6 industry talks

·       24 short talks selected from abstracts

·       4 Breakout rooms at the Young Scientists’ Symposia with 9 invited panelists. 

·       75 e-posters distributed in 3 dedicated sessions

·       7 poster prizes & 3 exhibition prizes

·       8 virtual booths

·       26 sponsors

·       66 applications for the PIs of Tomorrow Competition.

PI's of Tomorrow Prizes

PIOT Jury Prize
sponsored by Nikon and opnMe.com, worth a Nikon camera and 500CHF cash
Elisa Araldi - ETHZ

PIOT Public Prize
sponsored by Jackson ImmunoResearch and Beckman Coulter, worth 700CHF cash
Karina Silina - UZH

PIOT Finalist Prizes n1 and n2
sponsored by Twist Bioscience, worth 250CHF cash each 
1 Eduardo Martin Moraud - CHUV Lausanne
2 Traian Popa - EPFL

Poster Prizes

FEBS Letters poster prize
given by LS² Molecular and Cellular Bioscience section, worth 200CHF
Kaushik Bhattacharya - UNIGE

FEBS Letters poster prize
given by LS² Autophagy section, worth 200CHF
Nicolas Niklaus - UNIBE

SSEP poster prize  
for the best poster related to Pharmacology, worth 500CHF
Magdalena Rausch - UNIGE

Poster prize of the Department of cell physiology and metabolism from the University of Geneva 
given by LS² Physiology section, worth 500CHF
Camille Rabesahala de Meritens - UNIGE

MS Wil poster prize
given by LS² Molecular and Cellular Biosciences section, worth 500CHF
Joaquín Perez-Schindler - UNIBAS

Zeiss poster prize
given by LS² Microscopy intersection, worth 500CHF
Timo Rey - EPFL

Cells-MDPI poster prize n1
category Ageing /cell and molecular biology, worth 500CHF
Yustina Maria Puspitasari - UZH

Cells-MDPI poster prize n2
category Ageing /cell and molecular biology, worth 500CHF
Jiongming Lu - MPG (DE)

Exhibition Prizes

1st Exhibition Prize sponsored by Vitaris
voucher Apple store worth 500 CHF
Laura Fernandez - UNIL

2nd Exhibition Prize sponsored by Zeiss
voucher Interdiscount worth 400 CHF
Martina Lüthi - UNIBE

3rd Exhibition Prize sponsored by Bioconcept
voucher Manor worth 200 CHF
Arianna Arpagaus - ETHZ

Dear colleagues and friends,
it is my great pleasure to invite and welcome you to the LS² Annual e-Meeting. Originally scheduled as an on-site meeting in February 2021 at the Campus Uni Mail in Geneva, we had to change our plans due to the pandemic and moved to a virtual format. The 2021 LS²Annual Meeting has been adapted to shorter talks and will be presented over a period of three afternoons. Most speakers confirmed their participation in the e-Meeting, and we are looking forward to share and discuss the latest research from Life Science research in Switzerland and beyond with you. 

We have three fantastic plenary speakers on the general motto of the LS² 2021 e-Meeting: “Mechanisms in Health, Disease and Ageing”. They will cover key topics on new ageing models, on reversing the ageing process and on metabolic and molecular pathways of exercise. In addition, 10 scientific e-Symposia have been organized by very motivated members of the different LS² sections and partners with highly relevant and timely topics. 

Although we cannot meet in person, this year’s e-Meeting will allow for ample possibilities for young researchers to get in contact with renowned experts and discuss their data via different digital platforms. 

Please take part in this first LS² AM e-Meeting to learn, share and discuss your data and start new collaborations. We are very much looking forward to welcoming this first-time virtual annual meeting of LS² the upcoming February.

Mario Tschan

The annual meeting of LS² is special, it is different from all your other scientific meetings. It is the place to hear about exciting science across different fields, from Switzerland and elsewhere, to network, to meet your old friends and to make new ones, to share ideas and to start collaborations with your neighbors, and to see the new gimmicks that your local suppliers have to offer and to meet their representatives and specialists in person. All of this and more in just three days without jetlag.

Going virtual this time because of what you know all too well, we can offer almost all of the above. There is even some added value to this format: you don't have to travel halfway across the world (Switzerland), there are new ways to enjoy talks and to meet people from the comfort of your home or office/lab, but most importantly, Swiss expats and indeed all scientists from elsewhere, who have affinities for Switzerland and its international level of science, can attend much more easily.

And finally, one more big plus: the more condensed format of the online meeting forces us to run the "business meetings" usually associated with the annual meeting on separate occasions; that way, for example, more of our members will be able to attend the general assembly without interference with other meeting activities.

These are all features that a vibrant society such as LS² and all of you can be proud of in these challenging times.

Didier Picard