4th - 5th October 2010 at Cancer Research UK, Cambridge, UK

Schedule (PDF file)

Presentation Frederic Lemaigre (PDF file)

All BOLD project partners met in Cambridge at the Moller Conference Centre for the second BOLD meeting. This meeting was held over two days and was attended by 65 delegates; over 30 were external to the BOLD Network. The first day concentrated on scientific presentations given by BOLD PIs and invited speakers, mainly on Transcription Factors, the topic for this meeting and were as follows:

• Iannis Talianidis - The molecular mechanisms governing the transcriptional regulation of liver-specific genes
• Frederic Lemaigre - Control of liver development by Onecut factors
• Sylvia Cereghini - The regulation of pancreas development by HNF1A and HNF1B
• Markus Stoffel - Genetic regulation in the maintenance of glucose homeostasis
• Didier Stainier - Regulatory development of vertebrate liver, pancreas and gut
• John Marioni - Evolution of transcription among primates
• Ferenc Mueller - Gene regulation analysis using the zebrafish model system
• Duncan Odom - Evolution of transcriptional regulation in mammalian liver

These talks were separated by two poster sessions where BOLD ESRs and other PhD students presented a poster of their background to date and what their current projects entail. This gave an option for discussion of the various projects.

Day 2 of the Meeting was focused on communication and presentation skills for the BOLD fellows. This consisted of presentations and discussion in the morning, followed by Communication Skills Training Workshops in the afternoon. The presentations in the morning were given by external experts in their fields as follows:

• Eamonn Maher - How to write a paper
• Sadaf Farooqi - Genetic, molecular and physiological mechanisms involved in obesity
• Ines Alvarez-Garcia - Publishing open access papers at PLOS: Top tips
• Paul Woolf (Maverick Televison) - Developing Television Programmes

The Communications Skills Training Workshops were given by Skillstudio a specialist training company and were well received by those attending. These workshops were set up for groups of 20 and looked at all aspects of communication and presentation and was set up as follows:

Objectives:

• Speak with greater impact when presenting to non scientific and international audiences
• Use body language effectively to help build rapport with your audiences
• Learn how to adapt your material to accommodate the needs of your audience
• Structure messages effectively so that they are clear, memorable and understood
• Develop a highly professional and engaging presentation style

In parallel to the Skills Workshop, Board Meetings were held for the PIs.