September 24 – 28, 2023

Chéribourg hotel, Quebec, Canada

RNA vs pathogens: biology, medicine and technology

Poster

Sessions:

Viral RNA
Immunology and host response
Bacteria and other infectious agents
RNA therapeutics
Machine learning, AI, and computational biology
RNA visualization
Ribosomes and mRNA translation
RNA modifications and non-coding RNAs
RNA binding proteins
RNA evolution
Eukaryotic RNA maturation and decay

Sessions’ Chairs:

Viral RNA
         Aaron Schmidt, Ragon institute of Mass General, MIT and Harvard, USA
Immunology and host response
         Gaya Amarasinghe, Washington University, USA
Bacteria and other infectious agents
         Seth Childers, University of Pittsburgh
RNA therapeutics
         Ryan Flynn, Harvard University, USA
Machine learning, AI, and computational biology
         Yoseph Barash, University of Pennsylvania, USA
RNA visualization
         Éric Lécuyer, Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montéral (IRCM), Canada
Ribosomes and mRNA translation
          Haribabu Arthanari, Harvard Medical School, USA
RNA modifications and non-coding RNAs
        Richard Gregory, Harvard Medical School, USA
RNA binding proteins
         Jinwei Zhang, National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA
RNA evolution
         Irene Chen, University of California Santa Barbara, USA
Eukaryotic RNA maturation and decay
         Olivia Rissland, University of Colorado, USA

Keynote:

Roy Parker, University of Colorado Boulder, USA

After dinner speakers:

Éric Westhof, CNRS, France
Gabriel Lander, Scripps Research, USA

Students’ choice:

Maria Carmo-Fonseca, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Hanah Margalit, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Featured speakers:

Britt A. Glaunsinger, UC Berkeley, USA
Selena Sagan, McGill University, Canada
Karin Musier-Forsyth, The Ohio State University, USA
Sebla Kutluay, Washington University, USA
Sun Hur, BCH/Harvard Medical School, USA
Dan Barouch, Center for Virology and Vaccine research, USA
Karen Adelman, Harvard Medical School, USA
Barbara Papadopoulou, Université Laval, Canada
Jai Tree, UNSW Sydney, Australia
Juan Alfonzo, The Ohio State University, USA
Amanda Hargrove, Duke University, USA
Jesse Gray, Head of Discovery at Ascidian Therapeutics, USA
Mano Manoharan, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, USA
Debora Marks, Harvard Medical School, USA
Olivia Corradin, MIT, USA
Blake Sweeney, European Bioinformatics Institute, UK
Jérôme Waldispühl, McGill University, Canada
Christine Mayr, Sloan Kettering Institute, USA
Jeffrey Chao, Friedrich Miescher Institute, Switzerland
Elena Conti, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Germany
Sabine Schneider, LMU Munich, Germany
Fei Chen, Harvard University, USA
Nahum Sonenberg, McGill University, Canada
Hani Zaher, Washington University in St. Louis, USA
Stirling Churchman, Harvard Medical School, USA
Ryan Flynn, Harvard University, USA
Amanda Whipple, Harvard University, USA
Valerie de Crecy-Lagard, University of Florida, USA
Nadya Dimitrova, Yale University, USA
Kristen Lynch, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Markus Haffner, NIH, USA
Alan Davidson, University of Toronto, Canada
Thomas Carrell, LMU, Germany
Sergey Melnikov, Newcastle University Medical School, UK
Narry Kim, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea
Hagen Tilgner, Weill Cornell Medicine, USA
Athma Pai, UMass Chan Medical School, USA
Susan Chao, Harvard Medical School, USA
Daniel Larson, NIH/CCR, USA
Nicole Martinez, Stanford University, USA

Chéribourg Hotel

Nestled between Mount Orford and Memphrémagog Lake, Chéribourg hotel will leave you spellbound. The unique site, the beauty of the surroundings, and the mouth-watering cuisine will delight those who dream of an energizing getaway. If you want to escape the everyday humdrum, or if you simply want to organize a meeting in a delightful setting, this is the perfect place for you.

The members of the RiboClub in accordance with federal, provincial and local laws are committed to providing awelcoming, safe, and inclusive environment where each member can progress and reach their full potential, regardless of age, ethnic origin, gender, religion, disability, linguistic choice, sexuality and/or socio-economic status.

This community is committed to maintaining a respectful environment and has a zero-tolerance policy against harassment and discriminatory behavior at all its events. Participants, including researchers, research assistants, postdoctoral fellows, students, and exhibitors, must show respect and consideration for each other and the local community.

Consistent with the mission, commitments and policies, the purpose of this Code is to define the professional conduct of all individuals. All participants attending the RiboClub annual meeting are expected to comply with this Code of Conduct.

Expected behavior

All participants agree to:

• Treat all participants with respect and consideration, valuing the diversity of views and opinions
• Demonstrate courtesy, respect, and cooperation
• Communicate openly with respect for others, focusing on ideas rather than individuals and providing positive feedback and criticism
• Be attentive to their surroundings and to fellow participants
• Comply with the rules and policies of the conference site
• Notify the organizers if a dangerous situation or a person in distress is noticed

Unacceptable behavior

All participants agree to refrain from unacceptable behavior including but not limited to:

• All forms of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or discrimination
• The threat, harassment, or personal attack of any participant
• The use of traditional or social media to target individual actions of conference attendees in a way that could harm their privacy or reputation
• Verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, height, race, religion, linguistic choice, country of origin
• False or misleading statements or activities that could be perceived as defamatory by any participant or organization present at the conference
• Loss of civility, for example shouting, personal attacks or insults, throwing objects or other displays of temper
• Inappropriate use of nudity or sexual images in public spaces or in presentations
• Unwanted physical contact with others or threats of such contact
• Sexual harassment or harassment based on age, gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, or sexual orientation
• Recording or photographing the presentation of another participant without her/his/their explicit permission

Reporting Breaches or Violations

Violations of this Code of Conduct must be reported to one of the organizers.

Michelle Scott                         Email: [email protected]

Samer Hussein                        Email: [email protected]

Ute Kothe                                 Email: [email protected]

Jeru Manoj Manuel                Email: [email protected]

Muhammad Riaz Khan          Email: [email protected]

Practical advice to prepare your Powerpoint presentation

• Keep the design very basic and simple. It should not distract.
• Use a simple and readable font like: Times New Roman, Garamond, Verdana or Helvetica.
  
• Consistently use the same font face and sizes on all slides.
• Colors used should be sober.
• Make a brilliant choice: match colors for design and good contrast to highlight your message.
• If you want to play with colors, keep it easy on the eyes and always keep good contrast in mind.
• Do not use a dark background, a plain and light background is recommended.
• Keep your pages simple, sober and uniform.
• Avoid dark animations, sound transitions and visual effects.

Poster guidelines

• Poster board dimensions: 3ft (1m) width x 3ft (1m) height
• Your poster should include heading consisting of (1) the poster title, (2) author(s), (3) affiliation(s), (4) city and (5) country.
• Your poster may use text, graphs, and figures to describe your work.
• Any necessary equipment for attaching the sheets to the board will be available near the poster location. Please use only the provided materials in order not to damage the panels and enable a smooth removal afterwards.
• It will be 5 min presentation in front of judges

Microtalk guidelines

• Microtalk presentations are 2 minutes long.
• You must present only 1 slide

Talk timing

• Keynotes’ presentations are 45 minutes long with a 15-min question period.
• Featured speakers’ and selected abstract presentations are 15 minutes long with questions during a panel discussion moderated by the session chair

The RiboClub Society has set aside a limited amount of funds for fellowships to support students and postdoctoral fellows who otherwise would not be able to attend the meeting for financial reasons. In most cases the fellowships will be made in the form of reduced participation fees. Travel reimbursement, if awarded, will be presented in the form of a check from the RiboClub Society after the close of the conference (keep your travel receipts; they will be required to receive reimbursement). No more than one fellowship per research group will be granted.

The application deadline for all travel fellowships/awards is June 10. Requests will be reviewed by a committee of peers of the regular members of the RiboClub, and decisions will be communicated by email no later than June 25. Please note that this fellowship is only reserved for external participants (outside Sherbrooke area).

If you wish to apply for a fellowship, please fill in the form and send it as a file attachment to [email protected]

The RiboClub Annual Meeting organizers are seeking public and private sponsors and industrial partners to support social events, awards, gala dinner, student travel and registration, invited speakers, and other conference expenses. The Riboclub is an international conference, this year focused on RNA in medicine, and featuring numerous experts from Canada and around the world, alongside trainee talks and posters. Besides many interesting talks, this meeting involves opportunities for sponsorship, job postings, networking and more.

Due to the constantly changing nature of travel, we urge people to research their own travel requirements, including Passport and Visa requirements, documentation for re-entry into country of residence, and any other identification needed, and allow sufficient time in advance of the meeting for processing of such documentation.

For those who are coming from outside Canada, please refer to the following link and check if your visit requires a Visa to enter the country: https://ircc.canada.ca/english/visit/visas.asp

Directions to the Chéribourg Hotel

For people traveling from Boston, we recommend driving to the Chéribourg Hotel (about 4.5 hours), which would avoid downtime from international requirement airfare and yet, being another two hours from the venue once landing at Montréal airport.

Please allow at least 2 hours travel time from Montréal airport to the Chéribourg Hotel, plus an additional 2 hours for check-in if traveling overseas (outside Canada) or 1 hour for check-in if traveling domestically (within Canada).

To facilitate travel to the the Riboclub Annual meeting from the Montreal airport we suggest two possibilities:
1. One is to book with a local shuttle company: https://aeronavette.ca/en/home/
2. The second option is to rent a car at the airport: http://www.admtl.com/en/access/car-rental

A web-based tool that could be helpful for those having already organized a ride and wish to share it can be found at: http://www.groupcarpool.com/. Please note that although the Riboclub has tested these sites they are external and the Riboclub cannot be held responsible for their function.

You can also travel by bus:

• Take the Express Bus 747 to Montréal Central Bus terminal at Berri-UQAM metro station (Gare d’autocars de Montréal), located at 505 de Maisonneuve Blvd
• From Montréal Central Bus station, take Transdev Limocar Bus to Magog city
• From Magog take a taxi to the Chéribourg Hotel

For further information not included in this page, please contact [email protected]