Here is the report from New Investigators who were granted to attend ICEM meeting in Ottawa, Canada, August/September 2022:
We would like to thank EEMGS and EEMGS NI for awarding us a travel grant to attend the 13th International Conference on Environmental Mutagens ICEM 2022 in Ottawa, Canada. We had the opportunity to present our research work to a broad public; Milda Babonaitė presented her work by a poster presentation entitled “Analysis of In Vitro Genotoxicity of polystyrene nanoparticles in human peripheral blood lymphocytes”and Julie Sanders gave an oral presentation about the quantitative assessment of co-occuring mycotoxin mixtures present in food and feed.
On Saturday, we had three great welcoming events: first of all, the Student Welcome Session took place, where students and post-doctoral fellows were invited to meet and network with one another before the start of the meeting. It was a very nice afternoon, where we met new and interesting people worldwide. After this session, we had an Opening Reception in Shaw Center which started with a spiritual talk from an Anishinabe Algonquin Nation member about our changing world, followed by a great keynote speaker. Finally, the day ended with pub crawl, a fun way to meet other conference colleagues and a great opportunity to talk with people about other topics other than work (although the conversations still sometimes came down to work-related matters, what did you expect… 🙂 )
On Sunday, the scientific program started with two amazing keynote speakers – Evan E. Eichler and Graham C. Walker, both with a very interesting talk. This was followed by eight symposia and two platforms about In Vitro testing strategies, Risk Assessment, Cellular Responses to DNA damage, and so many more interesting topics. Overall, a total of 30 Symposia, 10 Platforms, 13 Keynote Speakers, and over 150 posters were presented. Topics, such as DNA Damage and Repair, Bioinformatics and Data Science, Epigenomics, Environmental Mutagens, Nanoparticle Genotoxicity, and much more were presented. It was an inspiring event that helped us gain new insights in our research topic and shaped our future as young researchers. Next to that, it was a week full of interesting discussions, innovative ideas, many valuable connections, and new friends.
Besides the scientific program, other Social Programs such as the Wine and Cheese Reception held in the National Gallery of Canada, and the ICEM Conference Banquet held at the Canadian Museum of History, were fascinating and planned impeccably.
We are very grateful to EEMGS for giving us the opportunity to be a part of this great conference and amazing scientific society. Thank you very much!