I have recently returned from the Keystone Symposia meeting “Proteomics, Interactomes” that took place in Stockholm, Sweden (7th-12th May). It was the first Keystone Symposia meeting in Stockholm, which, although lacking the ski slopes so often sampled at Keystone meetings, made for a very pleasant venue. It was also the inaugural “Proteomics, Interactomes” conference, and hopefully it will be the first of many. The meeting was a great success, with an excellent range of speakers.
The organisers, Matthias Mann, Ruedi Aebersold and Mathias Uhlén, put together an engaging programme that thematically (and chronologically) covered the “life” of the proteome, from birth (protein synthesis and interplay with genomics) through the prime of life (myriad interactions and signalling) to ultimate death (protein degradation). The end of the programme even ushered in the afterlife of the proteome!
For me, a particularly enjoyable aspect of the meeting was the interactive poster sessions, which were really successful and stimulated a lot of discussion. I presented a poster on my recent work on the proteomic analysis of integrin adhesion complexes and had lots of interesting feedback. The poster sessions in which you’ve lost your voice by the end are always the most rewarding, in my opinion!
Overall, it was a great meeting, and I made some new friends and ate some elk. I was also very grateful to have been awarded a Future of Science Fund Scholarship to enable me to attend this conference.
Adam Byron 