On September 9–11, the international event “8th Antibody Validation Workshop & 14th EuroMAbNet Meeting” was held at VU LSC, bringing together European antibody experts. This conference, which was attended by more than 100 participants, was organized by VU LSC and the Lithuanian Society for Immunology together with the EuroMAbNet – a network of European academic laboratories established in 2008, promoting international cooperation and sharing of scientific experience in the field of antibody development, validation and research. The research team of the Department of Immunology of VU LSC joined the EuroMAbNet in 2018.
This conference was dedicated to an important anniversary – 50 years of hybridoma technology, which opened up new possibilities for antibody development and application. The main highlight of the conference was the keynote lecture by Nobel Prize laureate Sir Gregory Winter (United Kingdom) “Antibody therapeutics: past, present and future”. The conference discussed various topics of modern antibody research – from antibody specificity assessment and sequence optimization to the search for new therapeutic targets, development of nanobodies and their use in cancer immunotherapy. Oral presentations were given by VU LSC PhD students Dainius Gudas and Agnė Rimkutė-Rudokė, and the educational session on the application of antibodies to flow cytometry (“Meet the expert in flow cytometry”) was led by Indrė Dalgėdienė. A group of VU LSC students presented their research results in the poster and flash talk session. The organizers are grateful the VU LSC Study Department for covering the registration fee for VU LSC students, thus providing them the opportunity to participate in the conference.
Most of the conference participants were from foreign countries and were visiting Vilnius for the first time. Therefore, a guided tour to Vilnius University, the Old Town, and the Gediminas Hill was organized. The organizers received a highly positive feedback both about the conference itself and about Vilnius University and the LSC. The EuroMAbNet conference once again demonstrated that international cooperation, sharing of experiences and ideas is an important part of scientific research progress and significantly contributes to the international visibility of VU LSC.
The local organizing committee of the conference was represeted by prof. Aurelija Žvirblienė, dr. Dovilė Stravinskienė, dr. Indrė Kučinskaitė-Kodzė, dr. Martynas Simanavičius, and a large group of LSC students - volunteers led by dr. Karolina Bielskė. The organizers sincerely thank the conference sponsors and partners, whose support ensured the overall organization of the conference and contributed to its success.