Third SBU Annual Scientific Meeting was held between caves

On 7-8 May, Structural Biology Unit celebrated the Scientific Meeting in L’Espluga de Francolí. More than 50 people attended at the meeting that was held Jaume I hostel, an historic building from the end of XIX century.

During the first day, we had scientific talks. Two invited speakers started the scientific programme. Oriol Gallego, visiting scientist at EMBL Heidelberg, shared latest results from his research project on supra-molecular asssemblies. Damià Garriga, from ALBA-CELLS and former member of Virus and Large Biological Complexes group, explained projects developed during 5 years at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia). As a novelty, Protein Purification Service technical director presented the new SEC-MALS equipment for biological macromolecular analysis. Members from each SBU research group presented their methods and results. SBU member talks allowed to get everybody familiar to the research is carried out at the Unit and to exchange expertise and opinions about the work between different groups.

After dinner, a Quiz to evaluate the general knowledge about everyday life at the SBU was celebrated. The first place was very competed, but finally the a group from veteran people reached the best score and won fantastic prizes.

Natural environment where the meeting was held allowed enjoying a beautiful trekking on second day morning to Monestir de Poblet and L’Espluga de Francolí caves, where we did a cultural visit. A reduced group did a caving activity and they were walking and swimming through caves for more than three hours. Finally, everybody could meet together to take a drink before lunch.