Meeting reports

The 20th Annual North of England Cell Biology Forum, supported by the Biochemical Society, was held on 20 September 2024 at the STEM Centre for Learning at the University of York. The conference was attended by diverse scientists at all career stages with good representation across many institutes from the North of England.

The programme included 12 early-career researcher (ECR) speakers who were all selected by a panel based on submitted abstracts. The scientific programme was varied across cell biology and highlighted many exciting novel and unpublished data, and spread across the selected research seminars in addition to ~50 posters. Topics included cancer biology, membrane trafficking, developmental biology, plant systems and many others. An array of techniques was documented, spanning molecular work up to physiological studies.

Unpublished studies about how cells communicate in different environmental settings, the drug delivery potential of extracellular vesicles generated in plants, the role of different enzymes to regulate cellular processes, and a novel regulator of hypoxia induced signalling were all discussed.

The key takeaway for me was that a rich and diverse amount of cell biology and biochemical research takes places locally, and that by bringing together researchers, in particular ECRs, we can benefit from networking and interactions. For many ECRs, this was the first time they had ever given an oral or poster presentation—the calibre was impressively high—and the engagement from the entire community fantastic. We would like to personally thank The Biochemical Society for the generous support of this scientific conference. The funds from The Biochemical Society were used towards providing prizes for the best poster and oral presentations.