This year’s annual meeting for the EU-funded BREAKthrough MSCA Doctoral Network was held at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. The purpose of the meeting was to share updates on their research, encourage teamwork, and increase participants’ knowledge about each others projects.
The meeting started with DC presentations, in which each candidate presented their research progress over the last one year. This was followed by a talk by Professor Nathaniel Martin (Leiden University). The talk was about naturally occurring antibiotics being great starting points but not often the end point. Molecules can be adjusted for better potency, spectrum, and resistance to resistance through rational changes and in silico design. The keynote speech linked basic chemistry to translational strategy, showing how design thinking and discovery work together.
The program also included Dr. Scott Hayes from IXA Tech Transfer (VU Amsterdam), who led a hands-on Grant Proposal Writing workshop that helped DCs write open competition XS proposals in formats that reviewers would like.
Towards the end of the meeting, there was a social event where the group went to Micropia – ARTIS, the world’s first museum dedicated to microbes. There, they saw live cultures, interactive microscopy, and displays about biofilms, fermentation, bioluminescence, antibiotic resistance, and microbial ecosystems. The experience linked lab work to public involvement and social importance, showing how microbiology is the basis for health, sustainability, and new ideas.
