CIB researchers co-organize the International Conference on Transcriptional Mechanisms and Regulation 'OddPols 2023'

The international conference 'OddPols' on mechanisms and regulation of transcription will be held for the first time in Spain. Initially organized in the United States in 1998, only one of the twelve previous editions has taken place in Europe, while the rest were held in North America. Dr. Carlos Fernández Tornero, a researcher at the Margarita Salas Center for Biological Research (CSIC), is a co-organizer of this event, which will be held in the city of Jaén between May 30 and June 2.

This scientific congress is framed in the field of transcription with a special focus on RNA, a topic of special relevance at present, for example, due to its use in vaccines against Covid-19. Confirmed plenary speakers include Roger Kornberg, who was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies on eukaryotic transcription, and Herbert Tschochner, a renowned scientist in the field of transcription and ribosome biogenesis.

This event will have a hybrid face-to-face and virtual format. Among the more than 100 in-person attendees registered so far, there are researchers from four of the five continents, belonging to prestigious institutions such as the NIH (USA), Pennstate University (USA), the Salk Insitute (USA), Johns Hopkins University (USA),  the Australian National University of Australia, the MRC (UK), the Amsterdam Cancer Institute (The Netherlands), the EMBL-Heidelberg (Germany), the CNRS (France), the Shanghai Plant Institute (China), or the Institutes of Molecular Biology in Hyderabad (India) and Taipei (Taiwan).

The congress is organized by two researchers from the CSIC, Carlos Fernández-Tornero from the CIB Margarita Salas and Olga Calvo from the IBFG, as well as by Jorge Pérez Fernández and Francisco Navarro from the University of Jaén, and David Schneider from the University of Alabama (USA). It is sponsored by the SEBBM, the RNA Society, and the University of Jaén, as well as by institutions such as the Provincial Council and the City Council of Jaén. Carlos Fernández Tornero comments that "it is a privilege to co-organize an event of this relevance in our country, which will allow introducing the scientific activity of our environment to top-level international attendees".

The website is operational and registration for virtual participation is still open at this link.