The 2024 ISTRY Meeting in Jena, Germany (24 – 26 April)
The recent proceedings held at Jena University Hospital from April 24–26, 2024, gathered talented scientists to discuss and disseminate groundbreaking research findings. A total of 90 delegates (excluding organizing staff) attended the meeting, including researchers from around the world (see Fig. 1 for details). This event not only brought together both national and international researchers across various career stages to advance the field of tryptophan research but also highlighted a new institutional development in Jena, C-I-R-C, which is part of the German Center for Mental Health (Jena-Halle-Magdeburg).
The 3-day program consisted of 8 symposia (with 4–6 speakers per session) and 3 plenary talks, covering 4 key themes: cancer biology, mental health and neuroscience, diet, nutrition and physical activity, and methodological advancements. In total, there were 34 oral speakers at the 8 symposia, 3 plenary speakers, and 24 poster presentations. On the final day, the ISTRY Biennial General Meeting, attended by members of the ISTRY Executive Committee, was held to discuss crucial issues related to the ongoing operations of the society. The transition to the next executive board was proposed, voted upon, and finalized. The new Executive Committee consists of Profs. Florian Zepf (as Past President), Edwin Lim (Secretary and Treasurer), Stefano Comai (President), Ana Pocivavsek (Vice-President), Sophie Erhardt (President-Elect), Tsutomu Fukuwatari (Executive Member), and Trevor Stone (Advisor).
ISTRY places a strong emphasis on encouraging and nurturing the next generation of researchers to ensure progress in the tryptophan field. A total of 11 competitive travel awards were granted to promising early-career researchers (PhDs and Postdocs) specializing in tryptophan research, providing travel support (in the form of reimbursement) to attend the meeting. Details of the awardees are published in the ISTRY newsletter issue 6. To promote research excellence, 3 poster awards (also in the form of reimbursement) were presented to showcase talented early-career researchers working in this field. Finally, it was an honor to present the prestigious Musajo Memorial Medal to Prof. Dietmar Fuchs (h-index: 101, citations: >43K) from the Medical University of Innsbruck. Prof. Fuchs has demonstrated research excellence and is a top contributor in the tryptophan field, having published over 372 papers on tryptophan research alone (Source: Scopus, as of Sept 2024).
Check out the website: www.istry.org/meeting/istry-2024/ for more highlights and details of the event.
Updated on 04 November 2024