Period of stay: from 02.07.2023 until 07.07.2023
Report
The International Congress and Annual Meeting of the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research (GA) was held in Dublin and hosted by NatPro, the Trinity Centre for Natural Products Research, on the campus of Trinity College in Dublin. The GA is a society, that promotes research and development in the broad field of natural products, provides a platform for the exchange of knowledge and ideas, and works towards a healthier life for humans and animals through developing a more evidence-based use of medicinal natural products. Prof. Judith Rollinger, Head of the Phytochemistry & Biodiscovery group from the Division of Pharmacognosy at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Vienna, is the President of the GA. The congress brought together 572 delegates from 53 different countries from all over the world. Therefore, a lot of interesting talks and posters from different fields of natural product research given by PhD students, postdocs, senior scientists, professors, etc. could be attended.
Besides networking during the conference coffee breaks at the conference and the social events organised by the hosts, I met with some PIs, postdocs, and PhD students whom I had already met at other meetings in this field. As some time has passed by since I last met some of the familiar participants, I could see their improved skills (e.g., greater self-confidence in presenting their work orally in front of a large audience) and further developed projects they have been working on for years. I have broadened my academic environment and gained new perspectives by listening to the presentations of different participants. I had the opportunity to present my work with a poster entitled ‘Discovery of novel natural products from endophytic Streptomyces spp. isolated from Leontopodium nivale ssp. alpinum’. I'm proud to report that my poster was awarded a poster prize, among 7 others out of a total of 429 posters presented in 3 different sessions.
Therefore, I would first like to thank my supervisor, Sergey Zotchev, for the opportunity to study in his laboratory at the Pharmaceutical Biotechnology of the Division of Pharmacognosy at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Vienna. I'm also thankful for the support I received while working on my PhD project.
Last but not least, I would like to thank the Vienna Doctoral School of Pharmaceutical, Nutritional, and Sport Sciences (VDS PhaNuSpo) for the mobility grant that allowed me to travel to Trinity College Dublin and attend this amazing congress. Even though it was very intense, it was a pleasure to be part of this meeting, from which I successfully returned as one of the poster award winners.
