NIHR / BAD Travel Bursary Report
47th European Society for Dermatological Research (ESDR) Meeting, Salzburg, Austria
September 27-30, 2017
Dr Zenas Yiu
NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow in Dermatology
The University of Manchester
I am extremely grateful to Professor Chris Griffiths, Professor Hywel Williams, the NIHR and the BAD for their generous support to attend the 47th ESDR meeting in the fantastic baroque city of the salt castle – Salzburg. This was my first experience of the ESDR annual meeting and I was very impressed at the quality and the broad scope of scientific endeavours from the dermatological research community represented at the meeting.
I was privileged to serve the results from my NIHR funded work four ways: I proudly represented BADBIR and the British dermatology research community with my talk entitled: “Risk of Serious Infection associated with Biologic Therapies in Psoriasis: A Prospective Cohort Study from the British Association of Dermatologists Biologic Interventions Register (BADBIR)” in the European Dermato-Epidemiology Network symposium; embarked on an International Psoriasis Council (IPC)-led poster walk learning how to present and zoom in/out my poster on an Ipad simultaneously; applied these newly learned skills in a video presentation, a fantastic new and free offering from the ESDR; and last but not least interacted with academics and industry representatives in the coffee break and poster sessions. Feeling adventurous, I also signed up for the “speed dating” event designed to foster collaborations between academics, and also with industry colleagues, and I spent an interesting 15 minutes learning about the production of new therapeutic antibodies in Ilamas!
In between these busy sessions, I attended some fantastic talks. The Future Leaders Symposium not only contained the distilled pearls of several researcher’s PhDs, but included talks on the future of dermatology research in precision medicine by the CEO of LEO Pharma; an important reflection on status of women in dermatology; a negative example of medical leadership in Sir Lancelot Spratt from Doctor in the House juxtaposed with a positive example of Ernest Shackleton from Professor Griffiiths; and a wonderful illustration of the peaks and troughs of an academic dermatology career from Andrew South. Other highlights included a great lecture on Th9 and Th2 cells from Christoph Schlapbach as one of the winners of the LEO pharma research award; “Clinical Saturday” lectures on autoimmune bullous disorders from Michael Hertl, therapy-relevant research of rare genetic skin disorders from Edel O’Toole, and a translational research journey of vitiligo research from Julein Seneschal. I especially enjoyed the guest lecture given by Clemens Sedmak talking about the conflicts of interest we face as medical practitioners and was educated about the concept of epistemic injustice – in other words, we need to listen to our patients!
The ESDR was held at the Salzburg congress centre which was conveniently situated at the heart of this accessible city, next to the famous Schloss Mirabell that featured so prominently in the film the Sound of Music. It was a short walk from the centre to the Old Town and all the rich culture and architecture that the district had to offer. I must congratulate the ESDR social event team as I attended both the future leader’s dinner at a restaurant in the modern art museum, and the main social event held at the StieglKeller - both were superb venues with fabulous food! I made some new friends and like-minded dermatology researchers who I hope to see in future conferences- I’m sure many fruitful new collaborations and links will arise from this meeting.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Salzburg and appreciated the opportunity afforded to me to attend this meeting through the travel bursary.