December 18, 2023
From more than 20 short courses to more than 150 scientific podium presentations spanning nine educational tracks to the latest products and services to be showcased in the exhibition, prospective participants to SLAS2024 share what they most anticipate about attending the SLAS International Exhibition and Conference to be held Feb. 3-7, 2024, in Boston. Read more to build your own list!
What do you most look forward to at SLAS2024?
"I feel like I am still not over the zeal of SLA2023 and I'm already preparing for SLAS2024. I felt like a kid in a candy store at SLAS2023 and I can't wait to relive that experience at the next one!" says SLAS2024 Tony B. Travel Award recipient Ramisa Fariha, M.Sc., a Ph.D. candidate in the Tripathi Lab at Brown University (Providence, RI, USA). Fariha, who will be presenting a poster at the event, is one of 42 Tony B. award winners selected to attend SLAS2024 to present either poster or podium presentations at the conference.
"Being a part of the SLAS Students and Early Career Committee I know there are several new initiatives to look forward to, but what makes this conference so special to me is the meaningful connections I have made. I have received several congratulatory emails for the Tony B. award this year from those I met at the last conference, each one of them ending with 'Can't wait to see you in Boston!' This alone is getting me excited – the opportunity to see old faces and meet several new ones.
"This year not only will I be presenting my own work, but I have three of my students (undergraduate and masters) who will be sharing their work as well. I can't wait to see them experience their first big conference and learn about all the cool new products being launched — and I am sure they will ask me to get a bunch of those products for our studies!
"I am also looking forward to being a part of the DEI in the Lab panel. DEI in STEM is a cause close to my heart, and I remember speaking to several people about representation at last year's Tony B. reception. I am glad that we have a session on it this year, and I am hoping it will be the first of the many future discussions that will enrich our community," concludes Fariha, who is chair of International Advocacy at Brown GSC and president of the South Asian Scholars in STEM.
“Every time I have attended SLAS, I have been an attendee — on the academic side watching or giving presentations,” says Samuel Berryman, a doctoral candidate at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC, Canada), and the SLAS Graduate Education Fellowship Grant winner for 2023. “While I have had the opportunity to tour the booths in the exhibit hall at past events, for SLAS2024 I will be an exhibitor on Innovation AveNEW and an SLAS Ignite Finalist. This presents a tremendous opportunity to showcase our new startup! For the first time, I’ll be on the commercial side where I’ll be boots-on-the-ground engaging with the SLAS community seeking to recruit new collaborators and potential customers.
“Every other conference has been about learning something new — whether that be academic work that people are doing, or new products that are available. This time, I'll be focusing more on sharing how our solution can support the problems being faced by others. All my interactions will be about starting these new conversations.”
Angelica Medina Farias, Ph.D., of the National Institutes of Health National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NIH/NCATS; Bethesda, MD, USA), comments that she is “most excited about interacting with other scientists and members of the community and immersing myself in the latest cutting-edge research. This will actually be my first time attending the SLAS international conference, and I am looking forward to experiencing a dynamic, inclusive environment at the conference and networking with fellow attendees.
“I am a virologist that focuses on the discovery and development of antivirals, and relying on viral disease-relevant models for antiviral screening and validation that is crucial to the success of our work. Because of this, I am particularly looking forward to engaging with other researchers who create physiologically relevant models for drug discovery and development.
“I’ve been a postdoctoral fellow at the NCATS for about 18 months, and at SLAS2024, I will be presenting a poster on my postdoctoral work surrounding disease modeling and early drug discovery in the context of human-disease causing neurotropic viruses. I would love to engage with others about my work to share our discoveries and brainstorm new ideas, as well as finalizing ideas about this chapter of my research while testing my presentation skills by participating in the SLAS Student Poster Award competition,” says Medina Farias, another Tony B. travel award recipient.
“I also signed up for one of the full-day short courses, so I am delighted to continue gaining knowledge in target development and strategies to improve the outcome for candidate compounds.”
"Since I started my postdoctoral training in proteomics at Cedars Sinai Medical Institute, I have developed a keen interest in automation and high-throughput (HTP) assays," says Saeed Seyedmohammad, Ph.D., staff scientist at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai (Los Angeles, CA, USA).
"Under the guidance of Jennifer Van Eyk, Ph.D., I have been given the freedom and flexibility to explore innovative approaches in clinical proteomics and how HTP cell-based workflows can pave the way into precision medicine. For the past three years, I have witnessed numerous advancements in automation workstations, computational informatics and the interwinding of multidisciplinary fields,” says Seyedmohammad, who also received a Tony B. travel award to attend SLAS2024.
"To get one step closer to individualized therapies and biomarker discoveries, there is a need for HTP approaches in sample preparation protocols to offer a cost-effective, accurate and rapid screening of drugs. At SLAS2024, not only will I have the chance to observe the recent developments in automation and robotic workstations, but also the opportunity of networking with leading researchers in the field and learn about the challenges in HTP workflows. I am also hoping that this conference can open the door for potential collaborations along with the exciting discussions on possible solutions for project obstacles. This will be my first technology conference and I hope I can convey the importance of how automation and technology could really push the field of proteomics forward and pave the way for multi-omics, including genomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics."
For fellow Tony B. award winner, Anna Popova, Ph.D., of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany), SLAS2024 is a great way to launch her new year. “I am looking forward to the scientific program and talks, as well as the exhibition — since I am constantly searching for new equipment that can be used for my research and like to stay up to date. I am also looking forward to attending the networking dinner, and of course to visiting the city of Boston.”
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