Of course, we have to start with the plenary speakers. There are four plenary sessions, led by Robert Langer, Henry Brem, Amar Sawhney and Paula Hammond. Each of these guests are renowned leaders in their respective fields and their talks will be among the main highlights of the conference.
In terms of invited speakers, CRS has such a number of invited speakers from a wide range of disciplines; it would not be possible to attend them all. Of personal interest will be the talks on areas such as advances in regulation (talk by Yue Teng from the US FDA), cell therapies (with a talk from our own Prof. Garry Duffy, and also Kristy Wood from Intellia Therapeutics Inc.) and improving in vitro methodologies – having struggled with this myself during my PhD! Aside from all of these plenaries and invited speakers are the many and varied scientific sessions, poster viewings, pre-meeting workshops and networking events – plenty to keep us busy over the course of the conference! I’m looking forward to all of it, and am grateful to the UKICRS for providing the funding for me to attend.