From 8th to 9th June 2017, the 5th Heidelberg Forum for Young Life Scientists „A Tale of Cells & Organisms“ took place in the DKFZ, Heidelberg.
 

It was organized by PhD students working in the field of life sciences in Heidelberg and Mannheim, Germany. The conference was fielded in four thematic groups of lectures where each block consisted of a keynote speaker, some invited speakers and some student talks. In addition, there were offered workshops and poster sessions.

Under the title „Microbiota – Our Janus-faced Companions“ the first session of the conference started with an overview of the latest discoveries in the research field of microbiota. Trillions of these microorganisms are inside the human body where some of them can increase their host’s susceptibility to cancer. So, they play a role in both health and disease.

At the afternoon, in the second session „Signaling – Molecular Whispers in the Forest of Noise“ the different levels of signaling were presented, namely the single-cell level, then the coordination of collective cell migration via physical forces and at the end, the integration of intra- and intercellular signaling and how this could effect the behavior of a whole organism.

On Friday, the third part of the conference dealt with the topic „Translational Cancer Research – Aiming for the Achilles’ Heel“. Hereby, different new approaches in order to find strategies to overcome cancer progression and metastasis were explained. Furthermore, different therapeutics against cancer-type specific mechanisms were shown.

The last session of the conference was titled „Aging – Finding the Fountain of Youth“. Thereby, different ideas in the field of DNA damage and repair, genomic instability and aging research were discussed.

Author: Saskia Haupt / Date: 10/08/2017