The VacPath Conference has been held at Utrecht University the 19th of June 2023 and it has been organised by the ESRs (Early Stage Researchers), guided by the ESRs representative Emanuele Nolfi (UU), with the support of Chiara Morandi (SVA).
The conference was joined by 54 participants from 22 institutions. The PIs and their ESRs attended the conference, but it has also been joined by participants external to the VacPath Project coming from other research Institutes, Universities and companies. The conference started with an opening session in which the Project Coordinator Alice Sijts, from Utrecht University, welcomed the attendees and gave an overview of the project presenting the scientific objectives and results obtained during the four years of the Project.
Four keynote speakers have been invited and they have talked about different subjects: Cécile Van Els (RIVM) talked about the lessons learnt from COVID-19 mRNA vaccination, Mariagrazia Pizza (Imperial College London) gave a presentation on the reverse vaccinology for the identification of new antigens, the meningococcal vaccine and beyond. Then Frank Verreck (BPRC) gave a presentation on targeting local immunity to prevent pulmonary TB, and Tobais Käser (Vetmeduni Vienna) presented the development of a novel Chlamydia trachomatis vaccine candidate in pig. All the ESRs presented their experiments and the results obtained during their work during the VacPath project. Active and constructive discussions amongst VacPath partners, ESRs and the external audience took place during the Conference. The Conference ended with the Concluding remarks and a social dinner of the VaPath Consortium and the keynote speakers.