Meeting reports

Abstract

The 156 attendees from 20 countries, dominated by PhD students (53 attendees) and postdoctoral scientists (50), helped create a rich programme of cutting-edge science delivered through 100 posters, 39 offered talks (including mini, short and extended talks) and 19 invited speakers. Sponsorship from the Biochemical Society contributed to an enormously successful event.The programme began with keynote speaker Stefan Raunser (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, Germany) who summarized a decade of discoveries involving Tc toxin produced by the bacterial pathogen Photorhabdus luminescens. ETOX 2023 showcased two further keynotes who presented exciting advances in antibacterial effector proteins (Chris Hayes, University of California, USA) and Samonella genotoxins (Teresa Frisan, University of Umeå, Sweden).The impact of cryogenic electron microscopy emerged as a key point of interest, as the approach was exploited to reveal new atomic structures of toxins or their delivery systems by scientists such as Martin Pilhofer and David Albesa-Jové. Another key takeaway from ETOX 2023 was the pace of discoveries on bacterial type 6 secretion systems: how they are used by pathogens to deploy toxins that kill bacterial competitors or eukaryotic host cells or influence the surrounding microbiota for pathogen survival. Exciting mechanisms underlying innate immunity and subversion by pathogens were introduced by researchers such as Feng Shao, Neal Alto, Charlotte Odendall and Teresa Thurston. Early career researchers made an enormous contribution to the meeting and lit up the scientific programme with 21 talks including prize winners Rachel Prescott, Marila Torrado, Mohamed ElGhazaly, Tom Arrowsmith, Christy Cheung and Charles Ericson.After a final day of excursions in the Scottish Highlands, a conference dinner, Ceilidh dance and prize giving, the meeting closed with a final announcement – the location of ETOX 2025 in Bilbao, Spain!