Last week of September was quite busy for the #BIDlab. We attended two conferences: the D-A-CH EV meeting and the Women in Science Erlangen Symposium.
First up was the D-A-CH EV Meeting 2026 in Erlangen, the joint meeting of the German, Austrian and Swiss extracellular vesicle societies, on this year’s theme “Extracellular Vesicles: Communication Across Barriers.” Three days of talks on EV biology fundamentals, purification and characterization, microbial EVs, clinical translation, and open questions in reproducibility, plus poster sessions. Miriana presented a poster there, and I presented one too, on our CAPNETZ project.
Right after, we attended the Women in Science Symposium in Erlangen, and this one hit differently. Last year I organized this very symposium while pregnant. This year, I got to come back and actually experience it from the other side, baby in arms. Full circle doesn’t begin to cover it. This conference (completely free and open to everyone) is organized by students and early career researchers, with the goal of promoting exchange between women navigating the academic system and giving women from several STEM backgrounds, a stage to tell their stories and science.
My son came along for the ride on both conferences. I won’t pretend it’s always graceful with a 7-month old baby, but it also felt important to bring him. Science doesn’t pause for motherhood, and motherhood doesn’t pause for science. More and more, I think the goal isn’t to choose between them but to build a version of academia/your life where you don’t have to. #Buildyourtable , ask for support and don’t make other’s life easier for you, it should be the opposite.
The Women in Science Symposium exists for exactly this kind of conversation, not just the science, but the real logistics of staying in the field: gender gaps, the quiet hurdles that don’t show up in a CV. Comparing notes with other women navigating labs and deadlines and small children at the same time is its own kind of data exchange, and honestly just as valuable as anything in the poster hall.
And yesterday, our lab celebrated it’s second bday!!! Crazy ride, ups and downs, but above all, we keep smiling, establishing connections and making friends, being excited about our science and supporting causes we deeply believe in. Thanks to Miriana that has been the rock star of the lab, pulling so much weight and all with a grace, calm and smile that is so inspiring for me and her students!
