By Dr. Zhengyu (Allen) Wen
ComBio 2015 was well above my expectation. As a plant physiologist interesting in ion transporter research, I had previosuly attended conferences relevant to my area of expertise and found myself comfortable enjoying the science. ComBio is a combined conference covering multiple fields of science and I had some minor trouble submitting my abstract to the relevant plenary that best aligned with my research topic, which did make me wonder about the scope of science that was to follow. But as the conference began, I realized that the 2015 ComBio was going to provide a big and pleasant experience. Professor Martin Caffrey’s lecture discussed new insights into protein structural biology and how it can effect protein function, which was very interesting from a structural biology perspective. I learn’t that there were new ways to crystallise a protein. Given the current difficulties in crystallizing ion transporters, this new method could potentially be used to solve the structure of ion transporters relevant to my research program. I also learn’t a lot from the epigenetics talks, which could pave new ways for crop biofortification and modification. Overall, ComBio2015 truly broadened my view in science, pushing me to think big.
