The symposium started with some opening remarks by Prof. Jianwei Wang (CAMS Vice-President) & Prof. Gavin Screaton (Head of Medical Sciences Division) who both expressed a wish for the day to bring all the researchers together in this opportunity for “old friends & new to gather in Oxford”.
This was followed by an update on the progress of the CAMS Oxford Institute (COI) from our co-Directors, Prof. Xuetao Cao & Prof. Tao Dong. Tao showed the progress of COI across the past five years as well as explaining where COI is headed in the future with the overarching aim of being a centre for scientific excellence. She also reiterated the goal that COI becomes a well-recognised incubator for the next generation of scientists.
With opening remarks concluded, the scientific portion of the day commenced with updates on research from theme leaders and Principal Investigators. Across the 14 scientific talks the 160-strong audience got a glimpse of the breadth of research being conducted by COI Researchers, covering a range of subjects including immunotherapy, multi-omics, understanding of SARS-CoV-2 infection, hypoxia, T cell receptor reactivity & how stress shapes the immune system.
Throughout the day, attendees also had the chance to look at poster presentations by junior researchers to learn about more of the active research projects within the institute. Judges visited around forty posters during the refreshment breaks and could not agree on just one winner, so the joint winners were Julia McCarthy (Fernandes Group) & Kexin Yu (Cespedes Group). They also decided on two runners-up: Henan Xu (Prof. Xuetao Cao’s group) & Wanlin He (Sir Prof. Andrew McMichael’s group).
The formal programme of talks was closed by Prof. Qing Li, Vice-President for CAMS, and Darren Nash, COI Director of Strategy & Finance. They also announced that the next COI Conference will be held in June 2025 in Xi’An, China.