The inaugural Brisbane Calcium Symposium was held on 1 August at the Pharmacy Australia Centre for Excellence (PACE)bringing together calcium signalling researchers from across Australia, New Zealand and the United States.  

The symposium was organised by Mater researchers Professor Gregory Monteith and Dr Felicity Davis, and Associate Professor Bradley Launikonis from the School of Biomedical Sciences – University of Queensland with presentations covering calcium signalling in muscle physiology, skeletal and cardiac muscle, mammary physiology and breast cancer.

A panel of judges composed of interstate and international researchers judged an award for the best presentation by an early career researcher. 

The quality of the presentations were so high that the judges were unable to separate the two finalists, and honours were shared between Alex Stevenson from the Breast Physiology and Cancer Group at Mater Research, and Dr Tanya Cully from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

“We had a fantastic crowd of high quality researchers from across Australia, New Zealand and the US come together to share their work, and show how intracellular calcium signalling can regulate diverse processes in physiology and pathology.” said Dr Davis.

“It was a great opportunity for PhD students to meet senior researchers in the field and get a new perspective on their work. We really hope this event can be held every year, so we all move one step closer towards improving how we understand and treat a variety of diseases where calcium signaling is known to be important” said Professor Monteith.