The third face to face meeting for members of the ARDAT consortium was kindly hosted by the team from the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC) based in the beautiful city of Coimbra in central Portugal. Over 50 individuals from across the consortium met over two days to receive progress updates and discuss progress and future for the four key work packages. The meeting was once again set up as a real time hybrid format so that members who were unable to travel to Coimbra could follow the proceedings and indeed, present their own work to the Assembly.
After a full day of presentations and discussion the meeting moved to the spectacular hall of the Colegio da Trindade to listen to invited speaker Jude Samulski give an entertaining and thought provoking talk on the history of gene therapies, highlighting the challenges and learning that has taken place over the past 50 years.
After the day’s formal proceedings the Assembly decamped to a local restaurant for the Meeting Dinner where discussions continued in a more relaxed environment. It was great to see the professional and personal bonds between individuals and groups developing.
As before, the second day was given over to breakout meetings where the different work package teams could sit down and engage in a thorough review of progress, roadblocks, issues and mitigation, very important ahead of the Project’s Mid-point Review on the 29th June.
In summary, this was another successful meeting where it was obvious that real strides are being taken to achieving the objectives of the ARDAT project.
The plenary session underway with remote presenters contributing via video link
Programme leader Mimoun Azzouz opening the meeting
The participants in the Third ARDAT General Assembly
ARDAT team members socialising at the Meeting Dinner
Jude Samulski Presenting his talk in the Colegio da Trindade