Biochemical Society support in action: experiences from our community

Throughout the year, the Biochemical Society offers a programme of grants for all career stages supporting research, attendance at scientific conferences and the sponsorship of events. Throughout 2025, we have awarded grants in support of international collaboration, teaching innovation, independently organised events and more. In this article, we are delighted to share a few insights from our community that highlight the variety of projects and opportunities made possible by our funding.For more information about our funding opportunities and the application process, please visit our website.Thanks to the generous support of the Biochemical Society, I had the opportunity to attend the EACR Congress 2025, held in Lisbon from 16 to 19 June. As a senior postdoctoral researcher preparing for independent research, this came at a perfect time in my career and proved to be both inspiring and formative.I presented a poster on my current work investigating a BCL3 inhibitor in prostate cancer and had valuable discussions not only about my postdoctoral project but also about my proposed independent research direction. The feedback I received from both established investigators and peers has helped me shape my thinking ahead of a major fellowship application I am preparing.The scientific programme was outstanding. I particularly enjoyed sessions on “New drugs on the horizon”, “Cancer genomics” and “RNA biology in cancer”. The keynote lectures were a real highlight, several focusing on prostate and ovarian cancer, both of which align closely with my background and future plans.Upon returning to Cardiff University, I gave a seminar to colleagues at the European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute (ECSCRI), where I shared highlights from the congress and emphasised the role of the Biochemical Society in enabling my attendance. It was a great opportunity to disseminate insights and help shape local research discussions.This experience has broadened my network, deepened my understanding of the field and strengthened the direction of my upcoming fellowship application. I am truly grateful to the Biochemical Society for their support and would highly recommend the travel grant to other early-career researchers seeking to grow scientifically and professionally.Attending the 6th International Conference on Risk Assessment of Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (ICRAPHE) was an exceptionally rewarding experience, both scientifically and personally. The conference provided a unique opportunity to engage with leading researchers, regulators and professionals working at the forefront of pharmaceutical ecotoxicology and it offered an inspiring overview of the latest developments in the field.I found the sessions particularly relevant to my PhD research, which focuses on using Daphnia as a bioindicator species to assess the effects of environmental contaminants.Several talks highlighted the importance of integrating mechanistic and organism-level responses to better understand the ecological risks of pharmaceuticals and their mixtures, which is an approach that resonates closely with my own work. It was especially interesting to see how other researchers are employing advanced analytical tools, such as metabolomics, to unravel sublethal effects and pathway-level alterations, reinforcing the significance of the methods I have been applying in my studies.The presentations and discussions also encouraged me to think critically about how different experimental designs, including variations in feeding assays, can influence toxicological outcomes and data interpretation. Engaging with scientists working on similar endpoints provided valuable feedback and new perspectives that I intend to incorporate into my future research.Beyond the scientific content, ICRAPHE fostered a warm and collaborative atmosphere. Networking with researchers from diverse backgrounds was both enjoyable and enriching, and I came away feeling part of a truly supportive and innovative research community.Overall, attending ICRAPHE was an inspiring experience that strengthened my understanding of current challenges in environmental risk assessment and motivated me to continue exploring the complex interactions between pharmaceuticals and aquatic organisms. I am sincerely grateful to the Biochemical Society for supporting my attendance through the travel grant.Thanks to the Biochemical Society’s travel grant, I had the unforgettable opportunity to present my research at the EMBO Workshop Immunobiophysics: From Fundamental Physics to Understanding the Immune Response, held in the stunning alpine village of Les Houches, France.It is still surprisingly rare to hear about how immune cells respond to mechanical forces in their tissue environment—even for someone who works with immunologists every day. That is what made this meeting so unique. As one of the very first dedicated entirely to the exciting intersection of immunology and biophysics, it brought together researchers keen to bridge these two fields.I presented my work on how interstitial fluid pressure—a mechanical cue often elevated in inflamed or tumoural tissues—can shape macrophage functions. It was inspiring to connect with others who not only understood the importance of these subtle forces but were equally curious about their underlying mechanisms. The feedback I received sparked new ideas for refining in vitro models and raised important questions about translating findings into in vivo context.Beyond science, the setting was something truly special. Nestled in the French Alps with Mont Blanc on the horizon, Les Houches offered the perfect backdrop for creativity and collaboration. Whether it was chatting over Swiss fondue, engaging in fireside science discussions or taking spontaneous mountain hikes between sessions, the environment helped foster a genuine sense of community.I am deeply grateful to the Biochemical Society for making this experience possible. I returned from the mountains with fresh insight into my project, a stronger network of like-minded researchers and renewed enthusiasm for pushing the boundaries between physics and immunology.Thanks to the generosity of the Biochemical Society, I was able to support the European Drosophila Research Conference by chairing the Immunity & Symbiosis session. The conference was an excellent opportunity to meet and support a wide variety of career stages and backgrounds. We could highlight a series of excellent talks on the molecular mechanism of cytoplasmic incompatibility of Wolbachia bacterial symbionts, roles for Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence factors to act in toxin-antitoxin type systems, or the genetic interplay of sensing microbial membrane components through canonically immune molecules expressed in the brain and surrounding glia—just to name a few.The Biochemical Society also enabled me to share a poster advertising our recently published study in eLife:“Layers of Immunity”. Incredibly, we succeeded in creating an animal model, a fruit fly, collectively lacking its core NF-κB immune responses, its ability to phagocytose and its ability to mount a melanisation response and the associated reactive oxygen species (ROS) bursts, individually and simultaneously. Surprisingly, flies simultaneously lacking all of these effector mechanisms were viable and even fertile in a homozygous state, albeit quite poorly. With these tools, we tested the relative importance of different immune effector mechanisms to infection by 24 pathogens. A couple of striking results included the importance of host melanisation (and the ROS bursts associated) in defence against viral infection, or in defence against Staphylococcus aureus infection. We could further reveal how different immune effectors contribute to host resilience, tolerance or resistance against Candida albicans infection. We found a tolerance/resilience role for phagocytic ability but a resistance role for toll-mediated NF-κB immune responses. We have deposited our fly strains in the Vienna Drosophila Resource Centre (VDRC) as part of the VDRC DrosDel Immunity Panel. The support from the Biochemical Society allowed us to advertise these newly available tools to the fly research community.We, the SPiDR team (Structures and Probes of Intrinsically Disordered Regions), organised “The 2025 Frontiers in Intrinsically Disordered Proteins (IDP) Meeting” at The Exchange in Birmingham on 8 to 9 September 2025. Our aim was to bring together researchers studying IDPs and deepen understanding of their roles in biology. The meeting had 46 attendees, and its small size encouraged active discussion and idea exchange across career stages. We hosted four keynote talks by international leaders in IDPs and Aurora A kinase: Ylva Ivarsson (Uppsala University), Giulio Tesei (Malmö University), Jane Endicott (University of Newcastle) and Erica Golemis (Fox Chase Cancer Centre). Additionally, seven talks were given by researchers from diverse career stages, from postdoctoral research associates (PDRAs) to principal investigators (PIs), alongside a lively poster session (with presentations from PhDs, PDRAs, PIs and industrial professionals).The meeting highlighted that IDPs play key roles in biological processes, yet how they control these processes remains unclear. This may be partly because IDPs are so ubiquitous that few researchers focus specifically on their biochemical and cellular functions. To strengthen the UK IDP research community, Dr Sarah Shammas (Oxford University) announced plans to organise in-person meetings. The SPiDR team will join this community and promote IDP research activities in the future. In summary, the meeting achieved its aim and represents a stepping stone for advancing IDP research, particularly in the UK.While AI is revolutionising higher education through its ability to generate human-like content via deep learning, its adoption in academia presents notable challenges. Key among these are worries about academic integrity, the effectiveness of plagiarism detection and how it might affect students’ critical thinking abilities. The rapid evolution of AI, with its myriad developments, challenges and opportunities, makes it increasingly difficult to stay current. To address this, our Biochemical Society Seminar series, “Bridging Silos: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to AI in the Biosciences”, brought together seven speakers. Ranging from senior lecturers to vice deans (education), these experts shared their findings on AI advancements in higher education. The broad range of topics covered included AI’s general use in higher education, its potential for cheating in assessments, generative AI as a digital skill and perspectives on generative AI in higher education from JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) and HEPI (The Higher Education Policy Institute). Spanning the academic year, the seminar series featured 40-minute presentations, each complemented by a 20-minute Q&A. The most notable aspect was the high level of engagement from attendees, who not only participated actively in the Q&A but also benefited significantly from the opportunity to interact directly with speakers in person.This seminar series primarily aimed to facilitate new collaborations between attending academics and staff, and both the speakers and their fellow attendees. We also sought to establish a lasting record of these presentations, serving as a valuable resource for broader dissemination within the Biochemical Society. All these aims were successfully met. We hope that the seminar series will stimulate discussion among colleagues and the wider academic community. Generative AI is likely to remain an ongoing topic of conversation, and as the capabilities of these tools improve, so too will the need for us to revisit these topics and rethink assessment design in higher education. We therefore plan to continue this seminar theme, inviting further speakers to present their expertise in the discipline as new challenges and opportunities arise.