Tired and uncomfortable, we touch down in San Diego International Airport. We left the UK in the morning, in the midst of a major storm. We arrived in California under the strong winter sun, excited to get settled in and prepare for the Biophysical Society 64th Annual Meeting. My group and I clutch a selection of posters, each somehow looking forward to, and yet dreading, the thought of hearing experts in the field critiquing our early PhD work. None of us have attended an international conference before – does it show?
My group and I are presenting our research on a range of cell signalling topics. My friends Nitika Gupta and Liam McCormick are with their supervisor, Nordine Helassa, presenting their insights on the regulation of voltage-gated ion channels by calmodulin. I haven’t touched excitable cells in a long time – I research store-operated calcium entry in skin cells, and here I plan to present my findings in keratinocytes.
As a group, the four of us share a keen interest in electrophysiology. We all measure ion channel activity in live cells, aiming to get a glimpse of the regulatory processes governing their activity. The skill is notorious, and we all have first-hand experience of why. We have painstakingly acquired data from our respective cells with N numbers orders smaller than most techniques provide in the same space of time. This was the general feeling of uncertainty ever-present in our minds as we prepared for the conference. We have been reassured that we are here to get feedback, not present our research like a finished product. Let’s hope we get some good advice!
We arrive at the conference centre on the Sunday morning. Today there is a lot of voltage-gated ion channel research being presented. I lose my team almost instantly in the sea of posters and I realise I’m in it on my own for the rest of the day. I’m still not 100% after the long flight, and sitting down at the TRP platform for a couple of hours was a comforting start to the day. The work I am presenting on Wednesday has a strong TRP theme, so insights into their structure was most welcome. I walk into town for lunch and fumble with my dollars. How much should I tip again? Wait, you don’t have chip & pin?
The next day, I meet an old friend in the exhibition hall. A great benefit of working in research I have found is getting the opportunity to travel and meet interesting people all over. I met my friend, Aiyana Emigh, in Gambia, where I worked with the Medical Research Council and she with the US Peace Corps. Now, we both work on ion channels – small world? After the conference I will join Aiyana on trip to UC Davis, where she carried out her work in silico modelling hERG inhibitor interactions. As if the conference isn’t a good enough opportunity for networking, I will meet yet researchers on our road trip. I wonder if I could wind up working here one day? I will keep posting on this, and my experiences at the conference, soon!