In late October, Gl. Avernæs was the venue for the first annual meeting of ADIPOSIGN – Center for Adipocyte Signaling, since our opening in May 2019. The meeting was originally planned for June, but was postponed due to Covid-19, and still heavily influenced by it.
With the on-going pandemic and the associated traveling restrictions, the format of our ADIPOSIGN Annual Meeting was adjusted to accommodate a high degree of participation online respecting different time zones of members of our scientific advisory board as well as some center members. However, it did not prevent our center members from having a great meeting and enjoying scientific as well as social activities.
The meeting was opened with a joint day together with ATLAS – Center for Functional Genomics and Tissue Plasticity, where six members of the two centers’ scientific advisory boards gave inspiring talks. The great indoor surroundings at Gl. Avernæs provided an excellent setting for our discussion sessions, as the brisk Danish autumn weather was impossible to tame on the joint day. There is no doubt that there is a lot of synergy between ATLAS and ADIPOSIGN, and in the future we expect to see a high degree of cross-pollination between the two centers.
The timing of the annual meeting was perfect. “We consider ourselves very fortunate that we were able to meet before the corona-restrictions were tightened even further, as this would have prevented us from having such an important event at such a fantastic place”, says Center Director, Prof. Susanne Mandrup, and continues: “However, next year we really hope that our Scientific Advisory Board members as well as ADIPOSIGN partner Madan Babu and his group will be able to travel to Denmark and join the meeting in person”.