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EMBO Workshop took place in Paris, France, between 30^th of May and 2^nd of June. A big group of ICCVS members attended this workshop, including Robin, Chrysoula, Ala, Javier, Georges, Agata, Ewa, Maria and me (Sara). Robin gave a first talk at the workshop, about the work they are doing in the lab in Paris, particularly about pre-mRNA derived antigenic peptides for the MHC class I pathway, that are generated in the nucleus, Javier gave a short talk during the pitch session regarding bioinformatics strategies for the comprehensive characterization of immunopeptidome landscapes and few of us presented posters during poster session on Saturday.

The workshop covered wide aspects of the antigen processing and presentation topic, including: enzymatic processing and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecule loading, especially in cancer immunotherapy, non-classical MHC presentation, cross-presentation, tickling APCs, targeting APC-Host-Microbe interactions and MHC class II-restricted presentation. There was a lot of speakers from all around the world and it was a great opportunity to discuss potential collaborations. A lot of interesting talks were about peptide splicing, but also about new exotic pathways in cross-presentation. Particularly interesting discussion during all 4 days of the workshop was about trans splicing and obtained results regarding it.

Additionally, every day there was an evening program and chance to hang out and chat in more relaxed atmosphere. We had a bit of free time that we used for visiting the beautiful city. In general, the workshop was very useful and we had a lot of fun in Paris!

Sara Mikac

11^th International Conference of Contemporary Oncology took place in Poznań, Poland between the 13^th and 15^th of March. ICCVS had a strong representation there, namely Ala, Irena, Natalia, Sara, Sachin, Ted and myself (Zuza). Ted gave a talk introducing ICCVS and describing the kind of research we’re interested in; the rest of us presented posters (see attached pictures). The conference focused on clinical aspects of immunotherapy with a few talks on molecular biology. The most interesting talks (in my opinion) were covered in Novel Cancer Therapeutics sessions and covered novel approaches to cancer treatment that are still the in pre-clinical phase.

Additionally, there were a lot of talks summarizinig clinical trials of different drugs (including immunotherapeutics, chemotherapeutics and small molecule inhibitors). A complete novelty to me was a presentation by professor Pravin Sehgal from New York Medical College on membraneless organelles, which are formed by phase separation and have no membrane (for example nucleoli in the nucleus).

After the conference we went for a walk in Poznan old town. We had a great time!

Zuzanna Urban-Wójciuk