2024 Texas Chemical Biology Conference
The BioScience Research Collaborative Auditorium in Rice University, May 24 ~ 25, 2024
The 2024 Texas Chemical Biology Conference (TCBC) was a collaborative event co-hosted by the Texas A&M Drug Discovery Center, the SynthX Center at Rice University, and the Texas A&M Institute of Biosciences and Technology on May 24-25, 2024 in Houston, Texas. The conference consisted of 23 speakers and 131 total attendees from 14 different Texan institutions. This was a great opportunity to promote dialogue and foster collaborations with fellow chemical biologists in Texas. Alongside the lectures, there were two poster sessions composed of 49 total posters and a vendor show with 7 industry partners. Sponsorships from 11 different organizations raised $21,000 to support conference activities that included four meals for all attendees, accommodations for speakers, and awards for poster presenters.
The oral presentations began with a tribute to the late Prof. Walter Fast of UT Austin by Alfred Tuley (UT Austin). Prof. Fast joined UT Austin in 2002 and served the research chemical biology community for 21 years before passing away suddenly at the end of 2023. The event was a great commemoration of Prof. Fast’s impact on Texas scientists and encouraged holding strong to the ideals that he promoted.
The conference hosted 6 sessions over the two days for oral presentations from 23 researchers at 10 different institutions around Texas to facilitate discussions between chemical biologists of different institutions and backgrounds. There was a great variety of intriguing talks with the sessions focused on development of novel therapeutics, novel imagining tools, fundamental discoveries, and creative methodologies.
The speaker sessions culminated in the presentation of the 2024 SynthX Texas Chemical Biology Investigator Award to Prof. Xin Yan from Texas A&M University for her work entitled “Microdroplet Mass Spectrometry for In-depth Lipidomics and Drug-Protein Interactions.” The SynthX Center at Rice University sponsored a $1000 honorarium to recognize Prof. Yan’s innovative work in generating new mass spectrometry techniques for probing and identifying lipids in complex biological systems.
Two poster sessions allowed for attendees to engage in 49 different poster presentations from researchers at 14 different institutions. To support accommodations from presenters, 5 travel awards consisting of fully funded lodging and an honorary plaque were given to qualified applicants. Those receiving travel awards were Takeshi Miyazawa (UT), Weijie Guo (UT), Moazzameh Ramezani (TAMU), Ge Shi (UTA), Adam Hillaire (TAMU). Additionally, Rokia Osman (SMU) was recognized with a plaque because she was selected for a travel award but unable to accept funding for the accommodations due to a logistical conflict. Each poster was evaluated and judged by faculty attendees to identify the top three poster presenters to give their poster pitches during the final speaker session. The top three posters were given to Allison Goetz (TAMU), Joshua Plank (SMU), and Dylan Snider (UT), all of which were awarded an honorary plaque and $100.
Organizations that sponsored the conference were given tables to advertise their products and services to attendees. Silver level sponsors ($1000+) were also given the opportunity to have a 5-minute presentation during the speaker sessions. There were several sponsors over a variety of different areas, with exciting new developments in applications to chemical biology.
