November 02, 2009 John-Paul MichalskiLisez en Francais
Ryan and I recently attended the European Meeting on Glial Cells in Health and Disease held in Paris, France. Over a five day span we listened to lectures from 9 in the morning until 8 at night covering every minutiae of glial biology. We were also given the opportunity to present posters on our past years work with oligodendrocytes.
There is nothing quite as exciting as meeting and greeting a legend in the field only to have them turn around and question anything and everything you present! All in all it was a wonderful experience!
Conferences are an integral part of any graduate degree, as they allow for the exchange of ideas between students the world over. You have the opportunity to network with people from all walks of glial scientific life (and there is a surprising number of us too!) each with their own unique field of expertise.
For example, I picked up a nifty technique to grow intact slices of nervous tissue in a dish from a post doctoral student at the University College of London (and I continue to bug her at least once a week). This will allow for visualization and tracking of oligodendrocytes as they mature and myelinate functional axons all in real time!
As always, any and all thoughts/comments are welcome.
Cheers,
JP
Oh, and Paris was nice too
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