>interact 2007 took place on December 7th, 2007 on the MPI research campus in Martinsried near Munich, Germany. It was the first symposium for and organized by graduate students from all major life science research institutions in and around Munich. The regional scope of the event intended to promote interaction and cooperation between young researchers and scientific professionals on a personal level. The number of 450 registered participants underpins the obvious demand for such an endeavour.
A major part of the one-day meeting was reserved for poster sessions: More than 150 poster contributions covered a broad spectrum of scientific topics including neuro- and developmental biology, molecular and clinical neurosciences, cell biology of various diseases as well as plant and systemic biology. Topics were ranging from cancer to corals, from neurodegenerative diseases to nanoscience! Clustering of received abstracts based on common topics, and the applied methods made it easy for visitors to meet and exchange experience. Methods represented at the meeting included optical microscopy and mass spectrometry as well as structural methods such as (cryo-) electron microscopy, crystallography and NMR. Modern recombinant techniques, tissue-specific gene regulation and genomic expression, and proteomics in combination with bioinformatics were presented by several exhibitors in addition to basic cellular and molecular biological techniques.