Glimpse of ISCB Student Council Symposium at #SCSDublin2015

On July 10 the ISCB Student Council Symposium 2015 took place in Dublin, Ireland. The symposium kicked off with a scientific speed dating where delegates “meet, greet and discuss” scientific ideas and interest in groups. This year the Student Council was honoured to have Prof. Des Higgins from University College Dublin, Ireland and Prof. Ruth Nussinov from Tel Aviv University, Israel and National Cancer Institute, USA as keynote speakers at the Symposium. Prof. Des’s talk overviewed on the history of the multiple sequence alignment (MSA) algorithms and explained how Clustal Omega tackles challenges and fits in the MSA field.

Prof. Ruth explained the science and roles of Ras mutations that are differentially associated with various cancers. The young researchers at SCS had pretty great time interacting with the keynotes and listening to their inspiring talks.

In addition to the keynotes, Dr. Robert Davey from The Genome Analysis Centre and Mr. Michael Markie from F1000 Research presented pertinent topics on “open science” and “publishing in digital age” that initiated interactive discussion and idea sharing during and after the symposium.

This year 82 submissions were accepted at SCS after peer-reviewed by 24 independent reviewers across the globe. 12 students were invited to deliver oral presentations and 75 students presented posters. Based on the votes of the SCS delegates, a judging committee awarded 6 speakers with one best oral, two best poster presentation and three F1000 presentation awards. In addition, travel fellowships were awarded to 6 presenters to attend and disseminate their work at SCS.

SCS’s social event showcased that it is an initiative that opens up opportunity for young researchers to network, make friends and in some cases to build scientific collaboration. SCS 2015 was undoubtedly a great success!

Disclaimer: Any views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily those of PLOS.