ACS Fall Meeting 2023

Recently, some of our final year PhD researchers had the opportunity to attend and present their work at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall Meeting, which this time was hosted in San Francisco. Undoubtably the largest congregation of chemists in the world, 15,000 delegates were registered to attend the event which covered all fields of chemistry from medicinal chemistry to teaching, and computational disciplines. 

Jessica Graham and Catherine Salvini both presented posters on their DNA-encoded libraries (DELs) research. Alex Hallatt was awarded the RSC-BMCS International Travel Prize 2023 to fund his trip and he gave both a poster and an oral presentation of his work in developing PROTACs for glucokinase degradation.

The conference proceedings started with a bang, with Alex giving his presentation in the morning of the first day of the event. What followed was a 5-day-whirlwind of talks, poster sessions, networking events… and a tiny bit of sightseeing! With numerous parallel sessions and so much exciting research to see, a bit of running was occasionally necessary and some talks, particularly the First Time Disclosure sessions, were standing room only. The whole event was an incredible experience for all our students. Alex described it as ‘life goal completed’ and singled out a talk by Prof. Craig Crews from Yale University on his work and ideas about the field of targeted protein degradation as a special highlight. 

“The talk by Prof. Lipshutz was definitely a highlight for me – his work has inspired a lot of my research to date, so to hear him talk was motivating.” – Jess 

Before leaving California, the group managed to squeeze in some iconic SF musts: a trip to the Golden Gate Bridge, the Seven Sisters, visiting the sealions at Pier 39, and a ride on an SF tram. 

Since the beginning of their PhD studies this group of students has been talking with excited anticipation about attending this meeting, so it’s wonderful that it came to fruition with all of them having such excellent results to present.

Last modified: Wed, 13 Sep 2023 07:20:12 BST