Gitta Kuipers, organizer conference
We look back on a very successful CCA conference, where alongside serious science, there was also time for inspiring encounters and social activities. On Thursday, we had the honor of welcoming Prof. Raghu Kalluri from the MD Anderson Cancer Center as the keynote speaker, who gave us an extensive overview of his work on pancreatic cancer.
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For the first time in the history of the CCA conference, there was also a session organized by (research) nurses. The goal of this session was to make nursing research more visible and to strengthen the connection with CCA. This session was positively received, so we hope to present a more extensive program for and by nurses next year. On Friday, Prof. Karin de Visser from the inflammation and cancer group at the NKI was our guest keynote speaker, and she shared with us a story about the tumor-immune crosstalk in breast cancer.
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Gitta Kuipers & Jolieke Weijmer
Jolieke Weijmer, organizer conference
This year was the first time I helped organize the Cancer Center Amsterdam conference. As it was the 7th edition, the framework was already there but still needed the details to be hammered out. For the past few months, Gitta, Marieke and I worked towards the conference to make sure all went as smooth as possible. From PRG sessions, to picking whether we served cookies or cakes with the coffee, to room allocations, everything was thought of. It was great to put so many faces to the names I have been emailing for the past year and I hope to meet even more of you in the next editions of the Cancer Center Amsterdam Conference!
Tjitske Los-de Vries, winner of the Cancer Center Amsterdam thesis award 2023
The title of my thesis is Clinical and biological characteristics of non-Hodgkin lymphoma determined through genome bioinformatics. In the thesis we have performed genomic characterization of various types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma whereby we have been able to improve our understanding of lymphoma biology, classification and diagnosis. I’m grateful to all people with whom I worked together to achieve this, especially my promotors prof. Bauke Ylstra en prof. Daphne de Jong. A PhD really is teamwork, at the CCA, but also at home.
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Tjitske Los-de Vries & Maarten Bijlsma
Maaike Romme, Hylke Sebus, Emily Evans, social program organizers
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Emily Evans, organizer of the social program
Yoga, tea, improv and drawing - what more could you need, we thought! This year’s social program was centred around different dimensions of making things happen as the CCA - creating, exploring, moving, and playing together. Organised by a small committee of myself (Emily Evans), Hylke Sebus, and Maaike Romme, we had a lot of fun figuring out what activities within these themes we would bring to the conference attendees. In doing so, we found some great workshop leaders: Mandy Hu (yoga), Het Kleinste Huis (tea), artists Nino Maissouradze & Annemiek Timmerman (drawing) and DIG (improv).
Seeing all of our work come together on the day, and then seeing everyone having a moment of calm, a laugh, trying something new, creating hilarious portraits of one another, and meeting new people, was a really proud moment for us as a team. Overall, organising the social program was a really enjoyable, creative and rewarding experience that brought me a lot of energy and helped me to explore new skills. I’ve already got my eye on helping out again next year!
Hylke Sebus, organizer of the social program
To me, organising the social program felt like an opportunity to give back to the CCA in a “out of the box” way, and to work on skills I would normally not use in my day-to-day work as a PhD-student. It appeared to be a manageable task, and although it took quite some time, I can happily say it was doable! Exploring program options that would suite a variety of people’s preferences was a fun challenge, and we were forced to think come up with creative, exciting ideas. Furthermore, it is a great way to get a better feeling of what organising such an event comprises, although I still feel like I’ve only contributed to a very small piece. Would I do it again? Sure, it was a fun and new experience!
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Social program: Yoga
This article was written for Cancer Center Amsterdam.