Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings
Authors: Inder M. Verma
Journal: Molecular Therapy (2002)

When I first came to the United States in 1971 for postdoctoral studies in David Baltimore's laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I was aware of only two annual meetings covering the biological sciences: the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology and the Gordon Conferences. Most biologists looked forward to attending at least one meeting a year and usually stayed for the entire scientific program, which generally lasted about 5 to 7 days. In those days, the slides were black and white, blackboards were really black, and chalk was usually white. Speakers were frequently interrupted with questions during their talks, and the ensuing discussions often seemed interminable. One of the highlights of these meetings was the lively and stimulating interaction between the participants, regardless of their scientific “rank.” Not to date myself, but poly(A) in mRNA was not known and nobody suspected that the 5’ end of mRNA was capped. Recombinant DNA technology was not yet on the horizon and reverse transcriptase had only just been discovered. It may even come as a great surprise to many of today's students and postdoctoral fellows that nobody in those days thought about sequencing small segments of genes—much less the entire genome! And folks—there was no PCR! Science, the biological sciences in particular, has grown by leaps and bounds in the latter decades of the last century. By some estimates, over 90–95% of all scientific publications now cover advances in biology and related fields. It is no wonder then that there has been an explosion of information and a proliferation of meetings. A neophyte in the field of gene therapy today can select from a large menu that includes the Keystone meetings, a variety of FASEB and Gordon Conferences, the Cold Spring Harbor meetings, and the annual Gene Therapy Society Meetings (ASGT, ESGT, JSGT). There are also more specialized meetings devoted to the gene therapy of cancer, neurological diseases, and cardiovascular diseases, and special gene therapy sessions regularly appear in well-established meetings like the one held by the American Society of Hematology. Sprinkled among these academic meetings are conferences organized by commercial outfits to make money. With all these meetings, the life of a scientist practicing gene therapy can be quite hectic indeed. “Words, words, words,” Hamlet famously moaned when Polonious asked him what he was reading. Of course most of the science discussed at these meetings ends up in the scientific literature, allowing one to learn about new findings without stepping away from one's laboratory or computer. So why have so many meetings? Science flourishes when there is discourse and discussion and when there are differences of opinion. Meetings bring people together who may not usually meet or easily mix to discuss common interests. So often at meetings, new alliances are formed, new experimental protocols emerge, and sometimes even new concepts are born. Meetings allow new friendships to be founded and give young investigators a chance to meet more established scientists in whose laboratories they may want to pursue further studies. Being able to put a face to a name whose work you have followed and admired lends a certain humanity to science. Meeting attendees should also fulfill certain obligations. When they return to their laboratories or institutions, they should be expected to provide a formal account of the meeting to those colleagues who were unable to attend the meeting. This requirement introduces a certain discipline to follow the talks carefully, take good notes, and, when uncertain, corner the speaker afterward to get clarification. Although it is not possible to publish summaries or meeting reports of all the conferences within these pages, Molecular Therapy does publish a few of them from time to time. To keep our readers updated, we will continue to solicit meeting reports.