by Chiara Perico, University of Bristol
The Botanical Microscopy Meeting is an international event organised by the Royal Microscopical Society (RMS). This year’s edition ran from the 14-18th April and was held in the Kenneth Wheare Hall, conference venue at Oxford Brookes University. The format of the meeting consisted of eight sessions: each of which was opened with a lecture from an invited speaker and followed by presentations from selected speakers. The sessions covered a variety of research areas in plant cell biology, ranging from fundamental cell biology to plant-pathogen interactions to new advances in botanical microscopy.
My abstract was selected for a presentation within the “Cytoskeleton” session. I’m particularly happy with the feedback provided during question time and useful discussions that arose, which helped me identify key experiments to be carried out during my future research. I also had the opportunity to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of some of my results with some of the world experts on the plant cytoskeleton who were present at the meeting.
Another highlight was the presentation by Dr. Jordi Chan (JIC, Norwich), whose research combines imaging and computer modelling and aims to unravel the mechanisms responsible for cell wall synthase deposition and how these can modulate cell shape and plant morphogenesis.
Overall, the Botanical Microscopy Meeting was extremely relevant not only to present my research to a community of experts but also, as a final year PhD student, as a chance to establish a contact with potential future employers.
I would also like to thank GARNet for providing a travel grant and facilitating my participation in the meeting.