2023 - BACR/AZ Student Travel Award to attend the Advances in Neuroblastoma Research meeting 2023 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

I’m Louise Stevenson, a PhD student at the University of Sheffield, where my research focuses on prodrug development for use in a childhood cancer called neuroblastoma. Before this, I undertook my BSc and MRes at Newcastle University, during which I investigated telomere maintenance mechanisms in a subgroup of intermediate-risk neuroblastoma patients.

I was awarded a BACR/Astrazeneca Travel Award in 2023 to present my MRes research at the Advances in Neuroblastoma Research conference in Amsterdam. During the four days, I learnt about the breadth of neuroblastoma research taking place across the globe and left feeling excited about science and raring to get back into the lab. I am immensely grateful to BACR for this experience, as without the grant I could not have been able to attend.
 
On arriving in Amsterdam airport, I was reunited with my former lab and their new members, before heading back to the hotel to prepare for the week ahead. Day one I presented my poster in the evening, where I connected with many fellow ECRs presenting, along with more senior scientists who offered many helpful suggestions, particularly around potential models for my work. It also happened to be my birthday that day! In the evening, a sponsor for the conference took us and other UK attendees for dinner, where I got to know more scientists and clinicians from many different institutions.

Each day was jam packed with lots of interesting talks, ranging from chemistry to nutrition, with lots of molecular biology and drug development research inbetween too. I came away with some exciting experiment ideas, but also the knowledge of what data was important to ‘convince’ such a large and senior audience.

Wednesday afternoon was left for exploring the city, with the choice of a pre-organised boat trip or cycling tour. Not feeling brave, I chose the boat, where we toured the canals of Amsterdam before jumping off for some retail therapy and dinner with new friends.

Thank you so much BACR for this opportunity. A year on, I still speak of this conference near-weekly, and how much fun I had… not to mention the connections I made and excitement for science I developed.

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