Seed and Soil & The Structural Microenvironment: A Participant’s View

Samson is a PhD student from the University of São, Brazil. He used a Meeting Bursary to attend both Seed and Soil & The Structural Microenvironment.

About Samson’s Research: Melanoma remains a public health menace and it is one of the leading causes of cancer death globally. Also, the metastatic nature of melanoma has made surgery less effective, hence the need to investigate the molecular basis of its pathogenesis. Reports have shown that genetic factors are important for the pathogenesis of melanomas, and Ras, an oncogene is implicated in the progression of over 30% solid tumours. My research aims to study proteins associated with Ras (known as effector proteins) and investigate their role in tumour progression or suppression and ultimately develop a specific therapeutic intervention from our discovery.

What was a personal highlight of the conference for you?

Seed and Soil: The personal highlights of the conference for me are the sequence and coherence of talks given by the amazing researchers that were brought on board. The talks all started from the basis of metastasis (seed and soil theory) to what we now have in modern science. This ranges from the opening speech by Professor Andreas Trumpp, talks by renowned researchers like Professor Ashani Weeraratna, Dr. Salvador Aznah Benitah, and oral poster spotlight presentations from the students. Also, the breaks in between were indeed useful as they helped prevent the fatigue that could rise from long exposure to screens.

The Structural Microenvironment: A personal highlight of the conference for me was the last session where real-life academic issues were discussed. Moving up the ladder as an early career researcher to a faculty member. Professor Neta Erez, head of tumour biology group, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University did justice to the topic she talked on. Apart from the wonderful research she presented, she spoke about how women can break the glass ceiling and excel in biomedical research. This is not only useful for women but for a guy like me from a low and middle-income country, Nigeria.

How was this conference different from others you have attended?

Seed and Soil: This conference is very different. The talks were particular to the central theme. The conference also brought outstanding researchers from all over the world together in metastasis research. The timings were conducive (especially with my time here in Brazil). Also, the time allocated for discussion after each talk is something unique as well.

The Structural Microenvironment: This conference is very unique. All the topic were on point and fits perfectly well with the central theme of the conference. Also, the presentations from the industry partners were very useful. They opened my eyes to the possibilities of doing science with less stress and equipment with much precision and accuracy. In addition, hearing from scientists doing wonderful research across Europe and the rest of the world is also amazing. Likewise, the questions asked during the conference were also helpful.

How has the conference inspired you in your research?

Seed and Soil: First off, as a PhD student, I have learned more from this conference about the art and act of presentation in the science world. This also includes time management and science communication as well. It has also opened me to new ideas in metastasis research as this is a major crux of my research.

Is there anything from the conference that you immediately wanted to tell your colleagues about? What was it?

Seed and Soil: This is intravital imaging. Especially in metastasis research, this can be used to monitor cancer metastasis from the primary tumour site to distant organs. I saw this first from the work presented by Professor Sarah-Maria Fendt, ´Metabolic rewiring in metastasis formation´ where she talked about cancer and specifically metastasizing cells having to dynamically alter their cellular phenotype during disease progression, which in turn requires metabolic changes. In her research, I also learned about the dynamics of glucose metabolism in cancer and metastasizing cells. This is new to me and I will like to tell my colleagues about it and overall, apply it in my research work.

The Structural Microenvironment: Yeah, this about what I learnt from Professor Giorgio Seano of the Tumour Microenvironment Laboratory, Institut Curie Research Center, Orsay where he talked about vessel co-option, resistance to therapy and plasticity in glioblastoma. My PhD research is currently focused on melanoma but I do have a colleague (MSc student) here with me who is passionately interested in glioblastoma research. Professor Giorgio Seano talked about how vessel co-option is the movement of cancer cells towards and along pre-existing vasculature as a means of gaining access to nutrients rather than angiogenesis. In addition, he spoke about the beautiful histological features and the power of intravital microscopy of vessel co-option as well as the molecular players he discovered in his research. He would be glad to learn more about this and possibly thread this path in his future career.

Did you gain any specific knowledge that has benefited your research?

Seed and Soil: Yes, the first is Intravital imaging from the talk given by Professor Sarah-Maria Fendt, ´Metabolic rewiring in metastasis formation´. This is a specific knowledge I will like to apply to my research work. Initially, I never knew monitoring tumour growth and progression in live animals could be possible until I saw that in the work she presented. This was also shown by Professor Salvador Aznah Benitah, where he talked about how palmitic acid promotes cancer metastasis and leaves a more aggressive “memory” in tumour cells. In his work, he showed how palmitic acid rather than oleic acid promoted metastasis in dietary palm oil fed animals. Also, I learned about age-driven metastasis from the talk given by Professor Ashani Weeraratna. Here she mentioned Wnt5a as a major protein implicated. This also, I will like to apply to my work to see any correspondence.

The Structural Microenvironment: Yeah, I gained a lot but I will talk about a specific one from Prof Sara Zanivan of the Tumour Microenvironment and Proteomics Lab at Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, the UK where she talked about how cancer-associated metabolism shapes the tumour microenvironment particularly roles in collagen production. In her talk, she mentioned how cellular metabolism is a possible vulnerability of tumour extracellular matrix production. She spoke about how this can influence the growth of cancer cells and metastasis especially in the lung cancer model she used in her research.

Esraa is a Doctor from Iraq, who used the bursary to attend Seed and Soil: In Vivo Models of Metastasis.

About Esraa’s research: My research interest is to investigate the clinical significance of

biomarkers as predictive or prognostic markers in cancer and I am focusing on the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning as tools to explore more about the association between clinicopathological parameters of cancer and biomarker expression in cancer.

What was a personal highlight of the conference for you?

The conference was an excellent opportunity for me to know more about the mechanistic in cancer metastasis. The genetic and molecular background research in this area was just fascinating, and how such advanced tools could be applied in the future direction of therapeutic strategies for patients with cancer. One of the outstanding talks in this area was by Dr Mariam Jamal-Hanjani.

Were there any social/networking highlights you want to tell us about?

It was nice to meet researchers and chat with them during the poster session and I had an
interesting chat with one of the PhD students from the University of Sheffield!

How was this conference different from others you have attended?

It was comprehensive about the subject of cancer metastasis.

How has the conference inspired you in your research?

I decided to do a research on the EMT process and its role in cancer metastasis hopefully next time will have a poster presentation about this subject area.

Is there anything from the conference that you immediately wanted to tell your colleagues about? What was it?

Well, the Tracer X project by Dr. Mariam was just amazing!

Did you gain any specific knowledge that has benefited your research?

Heterogeneity in cancer is an important issue that should be considered during molecular and genetic mapping of cancer.

Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

I would like to say thank you from the depth of my heart to EACR and Worldwide Cancer
Research for giving me this opportunity to attend such an outstanding conference which opened my mind and opened my eyes to new and advanced tools to understand the mechanistic behind cancer metastasis and explore more to pave the way for future good plans and researches that could help researchers in my area where resources are not good enough for us as researchers. Thank you very much and God bless you all.

Ali is a PhD student from Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey. Ali used the bursary to attend The Structural Microenvironment: Breaking down the walls of cancer.

About Ali’s research: The healthy cells in the tumour environment could have different resistance against substances compared to tumour cells. If resistances are transferable between healthy and tumour cells, it could decrease treatment efficiency. I work with healthy brain cells and brain tumour cells and have shown when these two cell types interact with each other, tumour cells present resistance to treatment. Our research has demonstrated the combination of two drugs could inhibit tumour cell growth by overcoming the protective ability of healthy cells.

What was a personal highlight of the conference for you?

Being with the top researchers from their area, observing and learning how to approach specific questions on microenvironmental structures and cell-to-cell interactions as an early career scientist did inspire me to ask more focused questions and design better suited experiments about the area I am working currently.

Were there any social/networking highlights you want to tell us about?

The poster session was as good as the on-site poster sessions. Most of the attendees were walking around talking with each other. While presenting my poster, I spoke with several people, and some of them were potential collaborators for my future work.

How was this conference different from others you have attended?

The contents were focused on the structural microenvironment and microenvironment cell-to-cell interactions. Therefore, all the presentations were either directly about my desired work area or indirectly promoted me to think out of the box by learning different approaches to the topic I want to work on in my future career.

How has the conference inspired you in your research?

As an early scientist, extending my knowledge by reading the most recent papers and using the knowledge from the literature inspired me to work on the area more. But during the conference, I felt something better, more inspiring than just reading the papers. Presenters let me live the article, which allowed me to share their ‘love of science’, ‘excitement about the research’ and ‘indorsement to their previous students/collaborators.’. The plain words of the papers transformed in to something remarkable…

Is there anything from the conference that you immediately wanted to tell your colleagues about? What was it?

I am working on glioblastoma and approach the topic with specific questions. The presentation of Giorgi Seano was interesting for me because in our lab, at my home institute, we are currently working on a similar topic with a different point of view. Therefore, I immediately shared my newly found knowledge with my advisor to discuss the collaboration, adaptation of the newly found knowledge.

Didem is a Postdoctoral researcher based at Istinye University, Turkey. Didem used the bursary to attend The Structural Microenvironment: Breaking down the walls of cancer.

About Didem’s research: I am currently working on the interaction between tumour microenvironment and pancreatic cancer. We know that tumours do not consist of cancer cells, only. In addition to tumor cells, other cells in our body may serve cancer cells to increase their aggressive properties. Therefore, it is important to understand the ways of communication between cancer cells and their microenvironment. By discovering molecular mechanisms we can find new potential targets to kill both cancer cells and their microenvironment, as well.

What was a personal highlight of the conference for you?

I had a chance to see the works of different researchers from different countries. That was a great and eye-opening opportunity for me. As a young researcher, I realized that I need to work a lot if I want to be a good researcher like the speakers. In this context, the conference was also motivating.

Were there any social/networking highlights you want to tell us about?

I am really impressed by the talk of Sara Zanivan and I asked her a question after the presentation. Sometimes, during my research and experiments, I was thinking about the question that I asked Sara. However, I could not find an exact answer and that’s why I was feeling suspicious about my hypothesis. Sara answered with great detail and her answer helped me a lot for the future of my research.

How was this conference different from others you have attended?

Since the conference was specifically focused on the structural tumor microenvironment, I had a chance to listen to the recent works on this topic from the experts. Each presentation seemed to complement the other one, like a puzzle. Therefore, it helped me a lot to specifically focus my research interest.

Is there anything from the conference that you immediately wanted to tell your colleagues about? What was it?

Absolutely “Gather” [Gather is a video chat networking platform designed for participants to share their work in a 2D virtual poster hall and make virtual interactions]! Presenting our posters by using the gather characters was an amazing experience for me. It was so fun and also interactive. I have met some people and we talked to them. I visited some posters and ask the question the presenters about their work. The people also visited my poster and we discussed my findings. It was a great experience! I mentioned the “Gather” platform to my friend, as well.