FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE* Conference – The perfect opportunity to share experience and knowledge

16-18 November 2022, Seville, Spain

The full title of this conference was 1st International Molecular Biosciences PhD and Postdoc Conference: “THE PERFECT TANDEM: How technology expands the frontiers of biomedicine”. As its name says, most of the people were PhD or post-doc researchers from all over the world. Italy, the Netherlands, South Africa… The perfect opportunity to share experiences and knowledge!

The program was structured in two big parts: a scientific symposium and a career day. Inside the symposium, the topics were grouped in innovation, computational biology and artificial intelligence, basic research, and clinical and translational biomedicine. Being a bioinformatics PhD, all the talks related to my field were the most expected from me. And they did not disappoint me. Nevertheless, listening to the other talks even though my knowledge was not that deep helped me to understand and meet new concepts and techniques. 

Summing up my experience as a junior, I will say ‘fulfilling’. During the coffee breaks, you had the opportunity to interact with other PhD and post-doc researchers as well as discuss their works at their posters. I had the opportunity to show my project “The role of tobacco smoke-induced changes of the microbiome in shaping risk of IBD“ and shared not only knowledge but also tips, LinkedIn profiles, future collaborations, and professional as well as personal experiences.

Besides, there was an opportunity fair with different companies showing their projects and also job offers. In addition to that, they offered workshops and career chats. The one I chose was given by career coach Amani Said. It was one of the most incredible experiences that I had. We learned how to manage all the stress related to PhD and we discovered that all of us at some point had experienced the same feelings. It does not matter the country, the field of the project, or your mother tongue.

Not only was Seville a lovely city, but also a great experience thanks to its conference FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE.

*Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS), International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB), European Academy for Biomedical Science (ENABLE)

Author: Irene Victoria Bermudez Perez