'Connecting' with the Health Libraries Group conference.

Imrana Ghumra, Past Health Libraries Group (HLG) Co-Chair and now HLG Conference Lead, revisits recent HLG conferences before sharing details of the exciting programme for 2024. Hosted at the Royal College of Physicians, London, 19-21 June 2024, the conference embraces the benefits of a hybrid event, offering both in-person and online opportunities to networking and to catch up with colleagues from across the country, across sectors and the profession, and embracing ideas and best practice.

Uneven Progress in Gender Equality at Plastic Surgery Conferences: Lessons from a Decade of Meetings.

BACKGROUND: The demographics of plastic surgeons and plastic surgery trainees are changing, reflecting an increase in the diversity of medical school graduates. The authors investigated the gender diversity of speakers at several plastic surgery conferences and evaluated temporal trends over a 10-year period. METHODS: The following societies' conferences and years were included based on the conference agendas available for review: American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Plastic Surgery Research Council, American Association of Plastic Surgeons, Northeastern Society of Plastic Surgeons, and American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery. Differences in the average amount of time spoken were analyzed using an independent one-tailed t test. RESULTS: The number of female speakers and the time allotted to speak increased for all conferences. There was not a consistent difference in the amount of time individual men and women were allotted to speak. Across the five conferences, there was no consistent relationship found between years since board certification and female participation in conference. Gender diversity among speakers at plastic surgery conferences has not kept pace with the increase in female plastic surgery trainees because those who are selected to speak are overwhelmingly men. The hypothesis that a paucity of female speakers reflects the relatively shorter duration of career experience of female plastic surgeons was not supported by these findings. CONCLUSION: It is imperative that conferences increase the participation of women and strive toward more accurately reflecting the burgeoning role that female surgeons have in the field at present and will have in the future.

(#WomeninDDW) Persistent Speaker Gender Gap at the Premier Digestive Disease Event.

BACKGROUND: Over the last few decades, advances have been made regarding gender equality starting from medical students to trainees, to leadership in academics. The female representation in specialty academic conferences not only reflects the existing gender disparities in that specialty but also can influence young female trainees to join that field. Digestive Disease Week (DDW) is the premier digestive disease event. We aimed to calculate the proportion of female representation among speakers and moderators at the DDW meetings held from 2018 to 2020. METHODS: The data for DDW 2018-2020 were collected via the online web-based planner. The gender of speakers of presentations and moderators of sessions were identified by a google search. We further categorized the data by each participating society (AGA, ASGE, AASLD, and SSAT), by presentation track, by session track, and total overall representation in each year. RESULTS: Despite the subject of the gender gap being in focus, the proportion of female moderators and speakers was low in DDW in the last 3 years. The female speakers constituted 31.6% in 2018, 33.8% in 2019 and 34.6% in 2020. There was slightly improved female representation in sessions of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Stomach, and Small Bowel Disorders, Microbiome in GI & Liver disease, and Basic Science over the last 3 years. CONCLUSION: Based on our study and those referenced in this article, we believe that strategies to promote the inclusivity of female moderators and speakers at DDW provide a huge opportunity to influence gender equity within GI.

Extending human healthspan and longevity: a symposium report.

For many years, it was believed that the aging process was inevitable and that age-related diseases could not be prevented or reversed. The geroscience hypothesis, however, posits that aging is, in fact, malleable and, by targeting the hallmarks of biological aging, it is indeed possible to alleviate age-related diseases and dysfunction and extend longevity. This field of geroscience thus aims to prevent the development of multiple disorders with age, thereby extending healthspan, with the reduction of morbidity toward the end of life. Experts in the field have made remarkable advancements in understanding the mechanisms underlying biological aging and identified ways to target aging pathways using both novel agents and repurposed therapies. While geroscience researchers currently face significant barriers in bringing therapies through clinical development, proof-of-concept studies, as well as early-stage clinical trials, are underway to assess the feasibility of drug evaluation and lay a regulatory foundation for future FDA approvals in the future.

Cancer stem cells: advances in biology and clinical translation-a Keystone Symposia report.

The test for the cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis is to find a target expressed on all, and only CSCs in a patient tumor, then eliminate all cells with that target that eliminates the cancer. That test has not yet been achieved, but CSC diagnostics and targets found on CSCs and some other cells have resulted in a few clinically relevant therapies. However, it has become apparent that eliminating the subset of tumor cells characterized by self-renewal properties is essential for long-term tumor control. CSCs are able to regenerate and initiate tumor growth, recapitulating the heterogeneity present in the tumor before treatment. As great progress has been made in identifying and elucidating the biology of CSCs as well as their interactions with the tumor microenvironment, the time seems ripe for novel therapeutic strategies that target CSCs to find clinical applicability. On May 19-21, 2021, researchers in cancer stem cells met virtually for the Keystone eSymposium "Cancer Stem Cells: Advances in Biology and Clinical Translation" to discuss recent advances in the understanding of CSCs as well as clinical efforts to target these populations.

Synthetic biology: at the crossroads of genetic engineering and human therapeutics-a Keystone Symposia report.

Synthetic biology has the potential to transform cell- and gene-based therapies for a variety of diseases. Sophisticated tools are now available for both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells to engineer cells to selectively achieve therapeutic effects in response to one or more disease-related signals, thus sparing healthy tissue from potentially cytotoxic effects. This report summarizes the Keystone eSymposium "Synthetic Biology: At the Crossroads of Genetic Engineering and Human Therapeutics," which took place on May 3 and 4, 2021. Given that several therapies engineered using synthetic biology have entered clinical trials, there was a clear need for a synthetic biology symposium that emphasizes the therapeutic applications of synthetic biology as opposed to the technical aspects. Presenters discussed the use of synthetic biology to improve T cell, gene, and viral therapies, to engineer probiotics, and to expand upon existing modalities and functions of cell-based therapies.

Noncoding RNAs: biology and applications-a Keystone Symposia report.

The human transcriptome contains many types of noncoding RNAs, which rival the number of protein-coding species. From long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) that are over 200 nucleotides long to piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) of only 20 nucleotides, noncoding RNAs play important roles in regulating transcription, epigenetic modifications, translation, and cell signaling. Roles for noncoding RNAs in disease mechanisms are also being uncovered, and several species have been identified as potential drug targets. On May 11-14, 2021, the Keystone eSymposium "Noncoding RNAs: Biology and Applications" brought together researchers working in RNA biology, structure, and technologies to accelerate both the understanding of RNA basic biology and the translation of those findings into clinical applications.

Single cell biology-a Keystone Symposia report.

Single cell biology has the potential to elucidate many critical biological processes and diseases, from development and regeneration to cancer. Single cell analyses are uncovering the molecular diversity of cells, revealing a clearer picture of the variation among and between different cell types. New techniques are beginning to unravel how differences in cell state-transcriptional, epigenetic, and other characteristics-can lead to different cell fates among genetically identical cells, which underlies complex processes such as embryonic development, drug resistance, response to injury, and cellular reprogramming. Single cell technologies also pose significant challenges relating to processing and analyzing vast amounts of data collected. To realize the potential of single cell technologies, new computational approaches are needed. On March 17-19, 2021, experts in single cell biology met virtually for the Keystone eSymposium "Single Cell Biology" to discuss advances both in single cell applications and technologies.