A grand finale of the ISB theme at Kulturen in May
Early May, when the magnolias are in full bloom throughout Lund, the museum of cultural history is a very nice venue for a conference. Even more so for a community of researchers who have not met for a long time and the ISB theme was to be concluded. The two days were very successful and an inspiring grand finale.
The feedback after the conference has also shown much appreciation. The program was a good mix of topics and speakers and the quality of the numerous key notes as well as the many short talks created a high level of interaction and cross-disciplinary learnings. There were some speakers who were not able to travel but this was solved by presentations online in the hybrid form that we are learning to master in these post-pandemic times.
“Everything worked very well, and the discussions were lively”, says Karin Lindkvist who has been the theme leader the last years of the three-year theme period. “Especially the round table discission was an eyeopener to many participants. Within Integrative Structural Biology you can approach the same biological problems in so many different angles”.
An important outcome of the ISB theme is the vision to establish an Integrative Structural Biology Centre (ISBC) at Science Village in Brunnshög. Several speakers at the conference came from similar centres in both Europa and the US. There is a strong belief that a centre in our region would be central to both MAX IV and ESS. The close connections to medical research is a unique strength in how the research results can be transferred to clinical practice.
“ For me personally, this is a matter that I feel strongly about and drive at the Faculty of Medicin at Lund University”, says Karin Lindqvist. “We will aim for a close relation with Lund University hospital which is a successful, research institution in addition to working closely with the large research infrastructures in Brunnshög. We have had this in mind, but it was good to have this pointed out by international fellows”.
The ISB centre will be a natural continuation from the theme, and it is also a matter close to the LINXS Director Trevor Forsyth who moved to Lund from a similar centre in Grenoble. A legacy section on the theme will be published on the LINXS website and available to the community.
“ It was a very nice closing conference with a good atmosphere, constructive dialogues and interaction between the senior researchers and the younger generation. There are very large challenges but also huge gains to be met in the field and there are so many kinds of research studies where you can apply Integrative Structural Biology”, concludes Karin Lindkvist.
