Inspiring talks and lively discussions at the 13th Internal Meeting

150 stem cell scientists met in Herne on May 06/07 to discuss latest research results and finally exchange ideas in person after a two-year pandemic break.

This year the Internal Meeting took already place for the 13^th time and is still the event to be for stem cell researchers from North Rhine-Westphalia. In total there were 29 talks, which were divided into seven sessions, covering diverse topics e.g. 3D culture and organoids, cancer, intracellular signalling pathways and disease modelling. Furthermore, one session was dedicated to ethical, legal and social aspects of stem cell research. In all sessions, it was mainly junior scientists who presented exciting results and new approaches, to which there were many questions after each talk. In summary one can state that the participants were very interested in the different topics, even though some topics were beyond one’s own research field.

For the first time at an Internal Meeting of the Stem Cell Network NRW there was the opportunity to present a poster, which was very well received and led to lively discussions at the posters. Poster sessions will therefore be part of future Internal Meetings.

For many participants the 13^th Internal Meeting was the first in person conference since the beginning of the pandemic, which was also reflected in the extensive networking and exchange during the coffee breaks and the overall positive atmosphere throughout the conference. To finish the first day of the conference, there were several get-together possibilities on Friday night: The venue Akademie Mont-Cenis offered table tennis and chess, furthermore there were many comfortable settings to have a drink and a chat. As in previous year’s the coordination office set up a pub-quiz, in which more than 80 scientists participated and in mixed teams solved some funny questions and challenging tasks.