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Scientists of Tomorrow at the ESC 2019

by Dr. Anke Smits and Dr. Mahmoud Abdellatif

This year, the Eiffel Tower provided a stunning background to the ESC Congress 2019 in Paris. It was the first time the nucleus of the SoT met as a whole in 2019, and we had a very busy time, but also a good time, discussing our future actions.



The Paris Expo Porte de Versailles turned out to be an excellent conference venue that, due to its practical layout, facilitated interaction between attendees, especially in the poster area.

As Scientists of Tomorrow, representing the young community within the Council of Cardiovascular Basic Science we had the opportunity to provide a platform for early career researchers to present their scientific work and discuss career challenges faced (sessions such as ‘Women in Science’ and ‘Being a successful Clinician-Scientist’ were held).

We collaborated with Cardiologists of Tomorrow and with the Ethics and Oversight Committee and contributed, to a new aspect of the ESC Congress this year, with sessions in the Global Exchange Area. These looked at skills to support professional development such as research integrity and funding, patient involvement and device regulations.

The social media team was extremely well coordinated and efficient in providing the latest results. The ESC did a great job by setting up official Twitter teams for several subjects, and the SoT were happy to be on the Basic Science team.

Follow our updates via #ESCSoT.

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The SoT at ESC Congress 2019

The SoT adviser, Dr. Kostas Stellos participated in an excellent interactive boot camp entitled “Active learning: CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing” in which some of the SoT nucleus members were involved, as well as, some AHA young community representatives.

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Joint AHA and SoT Bootcamp on Clinical Genomics (from left to right): Niels Voigt, Anke Smits, Anwar Chahal, Kiran Musunuru, Nabila Bouatia–Naji, Kostas Stellos and Kent Arrell.

The Scientists of Tomorrow interviewed the winners of ESC Gold Medals 2019 including Prof. C. Seidman and Prof. H. Katus. They also interviewed the speaker of the ESC William Harvey Lecture on Basic Science, Prof. Connie Bezzina.

Moreover, SoT met with Working Group representatives to discuss current and future collaboration, such as trying to increase the number of young people as active participants in ESC related meetings.

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SoT and WG representatives meeting during ESC Congress 2019 to discuss future initiatives to foster further collaboration (from left to right): Albano Meli, Jyoti Patel, Nazha Hamdani, Gemma Chiva-Blanch, Sveva Bollini, Lilian Gregorian, Cristina Molina, Constanze Schmidt and Mahmoud Abdellatif.