On the 16th and 17th June 2022, the CLASSY team finally had the opportunity to meet in person again, in sunny Madrid. It was the first in person meeting since the 2019 Kick-off Meeting in Zürich. Fifteen participants, including PIs and early-career researchers from the CLASSY consortium, met at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) to exchange on and discuss the project’s ongoing outputs and to plan the next steps.
The General Assembly (GA), on 16th June, provided the opportunity for updates from all scientific work packages, with presentations on research progress in systems chemistry from Andrés de la Escosura (UAM) and Gonen Ashkenasy (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; BGU), in bio- and organo-catalysis from Stefan Simic, Mathias Pickl (Universität Graz; UG) and Bartosz Lewandowski (ETH Zürich; ETH), and in microfluidics from Miglė Jakštaitė, Wilhelm Huck (Radboud University Nijmegen; RU) and Elwin Vrouwe (Micronit B.V.; MICRONIT).
Prof. Germán Rivas (Centro de Investigationes Biologicas; CSIC), member of the project’s Scientific Advisory Board, joined the GA bringing inspiring insights on his research group’s latest results of implementing cell-like processes to mimic cell division.
Throughout the day, all participants were able to take part in scientific discussions and to consider how to bring them to the next level during a session on exploitation and funding opportunities for future projects organized by Jeanette Müller and Emily Rose Ciscato from the accelopment Schweiz AG (accelCH) team. Many ideas for future communication, dissemination and exploitation were also generated during an interactive brainstorming session organised by Yulianna Shalenyk (accelCH), to close the day.
The project’s Review Meeting took place on the following day, during which the consortium was joined remotely by the EC Project Officer and external experts, who provided insightful guidance and recommendations for progress in all work packages.
With new inspiration from the General Assembly and Review Meeting, the CLASSY team is now even more motivated for the next steps in bringing forward life-inspired replication in the lab. Watch this space and follow @CLASSY_H2020 on Twitter for the latest project updates!
