Today, I am writing on reflection of my time at the Biophysical Society Conference in San Diego. The experience has been amazingly informative and massively broadened my understanding of my research area, but also the range of research perspectives contributing to our understanding of ion channels and how they affect living cells. It has also been comforting to hear postgraduate students from a range of backgrounds discussing the joys and grievances that affect my day-to-day research life. I am very thankful for having had the experience.

            My group entered this conference knowing that we were presenting our posters in the final days, so it was imperative that we got the most out of the earlier presentations before we were mentally and physically exhausted. I attended talks from groups examining TRP channels form every possible angle, taking in cryo-EM, electrophysiology and in silico data in volumes I hadn’t thought possible. I chatted technical details with company reps to find out how I can reduce noise in my own electrophys recordings. I attended talks on next-generation imaging techniques and wondered how I could move into exploiting such advanced methods. I already felt burned out, and that was just Sunday!

            Waking up on Monday, I could tell the jetlag was starting to shift. The majority of the talks related to store-operated calcium entry, my somewhat niche area of interest, were on Tuesday and Wednesday. I attended talks with my colleagues on calmodulin and voltage-gated ion channels in cardiomyocytes. My friends Nitika and Liam, and their PI, Nordine, had a full day of talks and meetings to look forward to. Theirs is a popular research area at the moment, demonstrated by the saturate supply of presentations on their topics of interest. In the only short break Nitika had, we got a Big Gulp at 11am. This turned out to be a huge mistake, I realised, as my pint of low-sugar drink still managed to have me bordering on comatose as I sat in the penultimate lecture before lunch. The rest of the day flew by in a haze of pretty figures and indeterminate results.

            The next day, the conference agenda shifted slightly more towards my research area. Ca²⁺ signalling and TRP channels had a strong representation in the poster section, although again, few of the talks seemed to cover much in the area of store-operated Ca²⁺ signalling. My friends were nervous to present their research on calmodulin and voltage-gated channels in arrhythmia, but they left happy after grabbing the attention of the surrounding pool of calmodulinopathy-focused research teams. Meanwhile, I chatted techniques with a few other poster presenters working on some pretty cool optogenetics approaches. We all left happy, and carried this vibe on through to Balboa park for some sightseeing. The zoo and the museums were all closed, but the area was a sight to see as the sun set nonetheless. That evening, we ate Greek food and watched performers at The Shout House, an excellent venue where two singers performed on grand pianos by request. Big recommendation!

            Finally, Wednesday arrived and I found my poster relegated to the very corner of the exhibition hall. It didn’t really matter as anyone can find a poster they’re interested in, but I was slightly disheartened. It didn’t help when a senior researcher in my field came in and slated some pharmacological data in my poster – interrupting my presentation to another student to tell me “That’s not a TRPC inhibitor!”. Thanks, I guess. It can be easy to get shaken by those kinds of interactions. Later, a scientist I somewhat idolised stopped by, seemed quite interested, and gave me some really constructive feedback. That felt like a pretty major score, and soon after, the session was done. Time to rest, reflect, and move onto the next phase of my US travels. Watch this space for more on my interactions with researchers in CA over the next couple of weeks!