Invitation from CRS Scientific Secretary
Ijeoma Uchegbu

Why You Absolutely Have To Be There

It is not often that things work out so well as our planning for the 35th Annual Meeting & Exposition of the CRS, especially in the world of science where success is often coloured by many less fruitful hours. I am pleased to tell you that planning for our Annual Meeting & Exposition this year is proving to have a bit of a Midas touch about it. We have had more abstracts than ever before in the US, have a cracking programme on offer with topics spanning: medicines counterfeiting, mental health therapies and made in the laboratory organs. We have programmed the sessions so that you will be absolutely spoilt for choice when it comes to where to go and who to see and honestly if the enquiries that we have had, are any indication of the level of interest in our 35th Annual Meeting & Exposition, then we expect to welcome a huge gathering of the great and the greater to New York. To insert one, and only one, cliché: can you afford to miss this? We all know that the best deals are carried out over a cardboard cup of hot coffee and so we have structured each day to allow for maximum networking. This has been done by allowing for many Exhibition as well as many more science showcase hours. So you can learn something new, make new contacts and meet up with old and not so old friends all under one roof! Now CRS makes it even easier for you to select your workshop, register for the Annual Meeting & Exposition and purchase your banquet tickets by providing online registration.

The CRS Annual Meeting & Exposition is unique in that it is not too large as to be absolutely overwhelming in an “I cannot find my colleagues” sort of way and yet is large enough to include a good sprinkling of scientists from the different disciplines in our science as well as our friendly regulators. Our size and dedication to our members are some of our unique selling points.

The CRS Annual Meeting & Exposition is a meeting which focuses exclusively on emerging technologies; we are passionate about new science and I can tell you that the two days that Mark Tracy, Kam Leong, Martyn Davies, Teresa Virgallito and I spent going through the abstracts was one of the most exciting days of 2008 for me; as the science being carried out by you all is simply breathtaking. Some of the abstracts left me gasping an unspoken “why didn’t I think of that?” Pure pleasure! We had a hard job selecting the very best for podium places. We did it in the end though and so you will get to hear some of our scientists tell you about their ideas and how they validated them with good quality data. Some of the people I am itching to hear speak are: Shyh-Dar Li of the University of North Carolina who is developing siRNA therapies for the treatment of cancer metastases and Valentine Wascotte of the Université Catholique de Louvain who is developing a non-invasive skin based test for kidney disease. I could go on and on about the scientists that caught my eye but we have only limited space!

So if you are a scientist starting out and wondering where to pitch your tent, this is the conference for you as our knowledge gaps will be on display. Alternatively if you are a seasoned scientist looking to commercialise your endeavours, we have a healthy level of industrial attendees, in actual fact two halls full of industrial Exhibitors to choose from. If you happen to be one of a handful of thought leaders, well you should attend, just to make sure that you are still a thought leader, if you catch my drift. Finally if you are looking for technology to launch your next product, there is no where else on earth with pharmaceutical, consumer products technologies, and animal health all under one roof and we all know that “borrowing” technology from one sector to service the other is a quick and easy way to out patent our intellectual property rivals.

Be sure to register by 1 May for the best registration rates and to ensure your abstracts will be included on the Transactions CD. Remember we want to see you and your work in New York City 12-16 July!