Science: from Genome Regulation to Tumour Immunology
This year, we opted for a large number of short science presentations. In 6 different sessions, PhDs and Postdocs from various Oncode labs presented their recent work. Presentations were focused on topics such as genome Regulation, clinical impact, DNA repair mechanisms, Tumour Microenvironment, and Tumour Immunology. One session was dedicated to new technologies developed and implemented in the different labs. A noteworthy example was the presentation on the COVID screening platform developed by Peter Krijger and other researchers from the Hubrecht institute and other partners, that was installed early 2021.

Keynote speaker Trey Ideker, Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Bioengineering and Computer Science at UC San Diego, gave an insightful presentation on building ‘the mind’ of cancer.

Patient Engagement in the lab
Apart from science, we had some additional topics on the agenda. Bas van Steensel (NKI) gave a presentation about his experience with Open Science in the lab. In addition, members of Oncode’s Valorization Team organized an ‘Ask Me Anything’ breakfast session on grant writing and shared insights on the Oncode Bridge Fund.

Oncode Investigator Peter ten Dijke (LUMC) and PhD Dieuwke Marvin shared their experiences with patient engagement in their lab. Their account of these experiences was fully focused on why connecting with patients can be beneficial for basic researchers and their work. Apart from finding motivation and inspiration in the interaction with patients, they mentioned practical benefits, like the support for grant applications and access to clinical studies.

If you are an Oncode researcher and would like to know more about our Patient Engagement programme, please contact Colette ten Hove via [email protected].

A new level of online networking
Though nothing can replace real life interaction, this year’s edition of the Annual Meeting provided the research community with many opportunities to meet online. For the online poster presentations, we experimented with Gather.Town - an online game-like world where you create an avatar and walk around, visit posters, and have a chat with other visitors. Though it is not the same as the real deal, and it took a bit of effort to get used to, we understood most researchers enjoyed the setup and even met some new people along the way.

Storytelling in science
In 2020 we organized our very first Oncode Science Art Prize. The images we received for this competition are put together in this video, illustrating the spectacular and inspiring images that hide in the Oncode labs.

Following last year’s success, we organized a second Oncode Science Art Prize with a focus on the art of storytelling. The most compelling entries will be published in the coming period on the Oncode website, but for now: congratulations to this year’s winners Maria Alieva (Anne Rios lab) for her story ‘Diary of a lonely cell’ and to Mario Barrera Roman (Anne Rios lab) for his story ‘Revenge’.

And because the interest in science storytelling is broad, and the relevance of such skills increasingly in demand, we will organize a storytelling workshop for our research community in the summer. More information will follow in our researcher newsletter.

Until next time (hopefully in person)
With the 2021 Oncode CGC Annual Meeting edition freshly wrapped up, we are already looking forward to next year’s edition. We have high hopes we will be able to organize it on location and enjoy the presentations live, network face to face, and of course have some drinks and bitterballen afterwards.

We’d like to thank the Scientific Committee Jop Kind, Titia Sixma, Leila Akkari and Jurgen Marteijn, all (poster) presenters.

Until next time, and make sure to check oncode.nl/events for all our upcoming events.