Meeting report of the 6th Annual Nordic Autophagy Society conference in Kuopio, Finland!
May 31st – June 2nd 2023
The 6th Annual Nordic Autophagy Symposium was held between May 31st and June 2nd in Kuopio, the heart of the Finnish Lakeland. We were thrilled to welcome 63 registered participants to present their data, discuss their ideas and experience the authentic Finnish summer weather. At the Scandic Kuopio hotel, researchers gathered to experience 4 invited keynote lectures, 14 short talks and 2 poster sessions, featuring 32 posters.
Day 1: It was a pleasure to welcome all attendants of this year’s conference to a sunny Kuopio and the beautiful conference room with a lake view at Scandic Kuopio. Here, after the welcoming words delivered by NAS treasurer and conference organizer Anu Kauppinen the 6th NAS meeting was opened by Professor Tassula Proikas-Cezanne (University of Tübingen, Germany) delivering a fascinating keynote lecture on the function of WIPI proteins in autophagy and neurodegeneration.
Five more short talks, covering the role of ATG proteins, ubiquitin ligases and autophagy inducers rounded up the first day of the conference, which concluded with the first poster session. Everyone came together to discuss recent findings, future directions and possible collaborations in a relaxed and companionable setting. Shared dinner at the conference room only improved the conditions for this rich exchange of ideas.
Day 2: On our second day, the conference continued with high-level science and a good dose of entertainment. Two keynote lectures were scheduled for Thursday, given by Professor Christian Behrends (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München, Germany), who talked about the crosstalk of autophagy and secretion of TECPR2-associated neuropathy, and Professor Daniel Hofius (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala), whose lecture was related to autophagy in life and death during plant-pathogen interactions. Their talks were complimented by outstanding selected short talks, focusing on mitophagy and on autophagy in neurodegenerative diseases.
Thursday was also the day of this year’s social event, which took all participants to the symbol of Kuopio: the Puijo tower. 75 meters above Lake Kallavesi attendants were treated to a spectacular view over the heart of Finnish Lakeland – and even to a small shower of June snow. Luckily, everyone warmed up quickly with the help of cake and coffee.
After returning to the conference venue and attending the exciting afternoon sessions, it was time for the second poster session, at which participants again made good use of the chance to disseminate cutting edge research and to engage in fascinating and fruitful discussions. Following the NAS General Assembly led by the NAS chair Nikolai Engedal, the evening concluded with the conference dinner, held at the spectacular Musta Lammas restaurant. The evening was filled with delicious food and good cheer – an embodiment of our NAS conferences relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
Day 3: The last day of this year’s conference was kicked off by Professor Lisa Frankel (Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen) and her keynote lecture on ribosome dynamics during oncogene-induced senescence. Her lecture was accompanied by three more selected short talks, focusing on cargo selectivity and autophagy initiation. This selection of outstanding talks concluded the 6th Annual Nordic Autophagy Society Conference in Kuopio and we were left with the joyous task of awarding the best selected short talk (sponsored by Cells) and the three best posters (sponsored by Traffic) before officially closing the conference. Congratulations to this year’s prize winners (left picture: Dale Corkery – best Selected Short Talk; second left picture: Saskia Barz, Johanna Mayer, Mauricio Ramm – best Posters)
Overall, the 6th Annual NAS Conference was a success, bringing leading autophagy researchers together to share the joy and fascination of autophagy research, and enabling both the exchange of ideas, and the formation of new, valuable connections. We would like to extend our deepest thanks to everyone who made this conference happen: The organizing team around Anu Kauppinen, Eeva-Liisa Eskelinen and Maria Hytti, the NAS chair Nikolai Engedal, the NAS Board Members, the NAS web team (Rubén Gomez-Sanchez and Maria Hytti), the social media team (Simona Maria Migliano and Natalie Jayne Kurganovs) and of course our Sponsors (Cells, the Traffic Journal, the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies, Dojindo, the city of Kuopio, the University of Eastern Finland and the School of Pharmacy of the University of Eastern Finland). A huge thank you also to the invited keynote speakers and all attendants!
This conference would not have been possible without the generous support of our excellent sponsors!
