Meeting reports

The 2025 meeting on ‘Roles and Regulation of Protein Lipidation in Health and Disease’ brought together world-renowned experts and early career researchers (ECRs) from four continents to share recent advances in this fast-moving field. Attendees heard from 11 invited speakers, with 13 further talks selected from submitted abstracts, including seven from ECRs.Topics presented ranged from state-of-the-art mass spectrometric, chemical biological and artificial intelligence-guided methods to map protein lipidation sites to novel approaches to target (de)lipidating enzymes to specific subcellular locations. Other highlights included new roles for lipidation in processes as diverse as axon degeneration and responses to bacterial and viral infection. Talks from clinical researchers studying neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative conditions marked by dysregulated protein lipidation spurred new interactions with those pursuing cellular and molecular approaches, which should facilitate future translational studies.Numerous opportunities for networking, including dinner in the historic 17th-century dining hall of the venue at Exeter College, Oxford, further enhanced knowledge exchange and helped ECRs build connections. Interactions were also enhanced by all attendees voting for the best poster presentations, resulting in awards to four outstanding ECRs. The support of the Biochemical Society was invaluable throughout, with sessions running seamlessly and overwhelmingly positive feedback from attendees.On Friday, 20th June 2025, the University of Bradford hosted the 2nd Annual Meeting on Translational Medicine, supported by the Biochemical Society. Held in the Norcroft auditorium and streamed globally via MS Teams, the event attracted researchers and attendees from institutions across the world.Translational medicine plays a vital role in bridging the gap between laboratory research and real-world patient care. The field focuses on uncovering the molecular basis of diseases and developing effective, clinically relevant treatments.Organised by the Translational Medicine Lab, founded by Dr Talat Nasim, the conference brought together renowned speakers from the UK, Turkey, Egypt, Ghana and Bangladesh. The aim was to foster global collaboration and build strong research networks.With insightful presentations and vibrant discussions, the meeting highlighted the power of collaborative science in accelerating the journey from bench to bedside.The 7th BioPhyChrom meeting, supported by the Biochemical Society, brought together scientists working across disciplines and biological scales; from single molecules and mathematical models to whole cells and populations. A central aspect of this 7th edition was gathering members of the bacterial and archaeal communities, enabling a more substantial integration compared to previous meetings. A key point of interest that emerged during discussions was the eventual need to understand how observations made across these scales can eventually be merged to create new models that describe all observations. This is currently a distant ambition but should be possible as more single cell approaches become available to understand how molecules in individual cells contribute to the behaviour of whole populations. A highlight of the meeting was the prize lecture from Cees Dekker, presenting a non-topological model to explain how SMC proteins entrap DNA, which united many disparate existing, and hard to explain, observations from the literature. Other exciting new reports included the association of Topo I with RNA polymerase, single-cell Hi-C observations and novel computational approaches to describe the folding of the Caulobacter crescentus chromosome. A group of ~30 ECRs attended and participated in roundtable grant proposal writing and advice sessions chaired by four senior colleagues, gaining important insights into project writing and assessment process.The third Transcription and Chromatin UK meeting, held in Manchester, brought together researchers to explore how chromatin structure, histone and DNA modifications, RNA processing and transcription factors intersect to regulate gene expression and genome organisation in health and disease.Highlights included evidence that extracellular histones regulate cell plasticity, new insights into the dual roles of chromatin regulators as repressors and activators, and further support for the histone code hypothesis, showing its dependence on the chromatin context. This year’s talks also demonstrated how enhancer-promoter looping contributes to epigenetic inheritance and context-specific gene regulation.Technological advances featured high-throughput SELEX to map transcription factor interactions, CRISPR prime editing for probing histone modification function, and explainable AI approaches that predict enhancers and decode their regulatory logic. An industry perspective showcased how multi-omic strategies are transforming chromatin research, while the meeting concluded with an inspiring Biochemical Society Award Lecture on gene regulation under hypoxia.Generously supported by the Biochemical Society and the Company of Biologists, the meeting successfully united a vibrant national and international community and highlighted how conceptual and technological innovations are driving forward our understanding of transcription and chromatin biology.This conference again brought together scientists working on all aspects of ribosome synthesis with representatives from industry presenting innovative technologies that are being widely applied to advance the field, including nanopore sequencing, single particle cryo-EM and tomography. High-quality studies were presented on mechanisms of ribosomal RNA transcription, processing, modification, folding and association with ribosomal proteins using a wide array of approaches, including cryo-EM, synthetic chemistry, single-molecule studies, classic cell biology, microscopy, and in vivo and in vitro assays in health and disease. Recent advances in gene therapy and the development of small molecule therapeutics were presented. The meeting attracted many new young scientists who had not previously attended. All the feedback was very positive, and we were assured of future attendances. An early career session supported professional growth of the community and included an informative talk from a European Research Council representative and a career discussion panel.The talks included recent advances in resolving nucleolar dynamics, the regulation of ribosomal DNA copy number and transcription, mechanisms of prokaryotic and eukaryotic ribosome assembly, and the pathogenesis of ribosomopathies, including the application of novel bone marrow and neural organoid models. There were several talks focusing on clinical developments in gene therapy for Diamond Blackfan anaemia and the optimisation of RNA polymerase I inhibitors now entering clinical trials. Additional sessions focused on the regulation of mitoribosome biogenesis and the highly topical subject of specialised ribosomes and ribosome epigenetics. Engaging talks on advances in cryo-electron tomography were well received.The field is at an exciting stage with a range of groundbreaking new technologies to hand that promise to illuminate fundamental biological questions in the field. Exciting clinical diagnostic and therapeutic developments were reported that will have a broad impact across antibiotic discovery and for the treatment of ribosomopathies and cancer.Biochemical Society funding was used to support travel and accommodation of John Knight, an early-career invited speaker from the University of Manchester.The plan is to hold the Ribosome Synthesis meeting next time in around 3 years. Several potential hosts have expressed interest in developing plans for this future meeting already.