Pénélope Darnat, Alicante, 23-26 October 2019

→ 400 € Prize

3rd year PhD student with Agnès Audibert, IBPS, Paris

The European Developmental Biology Congress in Alicante this fall was a great opportunity for a young researcher like me to broaden her scientific horizons.

It mixed from all Europe and beyond, crazy talented scientists willing to share their discoveries with such open mindless, heartfelt sentiments and sometimes humour that it was just a pleasure to be there. As a profound lover of developmental biology, I was fulfilled by the multi-disciplinary of the presentations from cellular biology to genomics, making a detour in Evo-Devo. The opening lecture on new organisms was really interesting as it highlighted that something quite well described and almost universal as hox genes still have some cards in their sleeves to surprise the scientists. It set the bar high and all lectures after that were on the same level.

I was particularly interested in the comparison between the cavefish and its equal living in fresh water to address the problem of obesity and diabetes in humans. The quality of oral and poster presentations stroke me as the enthusiasm of all participants. I did found my peers of asymmetric cell division and share with one senior scientist vividly. During the oral presentations, I’ve also spotted two labs that I’ll be very interested to a post-doctorate fellowship with, one in Paris and another in Germany. And the venue was really nice and chic.

To conclude, I was really glad to take part and to present my work during this congress and again, I really like to thank the SFBD for giving me the means to do so.

View of Alicante from Santa Barbara’s Castle.