More than 60 PhD students from across the country came together in Adelaide for the 10th EMBL Australia PhD Course – a unique, two-week residential program designed to equip emerging researchers with the skills and confidence needed for modern scientific careers.
Co-hosted with the South Australian Immunogenomics Cancer Institute (SAiGENCI), this year’s course focused on future-ready research skills, including interdisciplinary science, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). Students explored AI foundations, mathematical modelling, systems biology, spatial omics, therapeutics, imaging technologies and more.
Thirty-four leading researchers, educators and industry experts delivered training, starting with a welcome address from Chief Scientist for South Australia Professor Craig Simmons and keynote talk from European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) Interim Director Jo McEntyre.
MACSYS provided major support for the course, hosting two days of mathematical and computational science sessions, while the SMART CRC delivered a full-day workshop on the future of regenerative therapies and their commercialisation pathways.
The program also included workshops on cutting-edge imaging led by Microscopy Australia and an introduction to spatial transcriptomics from the South Australian Genomics Centre.
Participants strengthened their professional skills through hands-on coding workshops, science communication training, 3MT presentations, poster design sessions (hosted at SAHMRI) and career development activities featuring speakers from academia, industry, policy and research infrastructure.
Madison Hindes, a participant from the University of South Australia, said she enjoyed networking with people on similar career paths and came away with a new appreciation for dry lab science (focused on computational, theoretical and data-driven research).
“I definitely thought science happened in a lab until coming here and now I can appreciate there is much more to it than that,” Ms Hindes said.
“I’ve learned about how I can incorporate AI and machine learning into my own science, and that it’s okay to not know how to do it all, that there are people who can help.”
Teagan Fisher, a PhD student from the University of Technology Sydney, said she would recommend the PhD Course to all students in the life sciences.
“It’s been a great experience meeting new people from similar fields – as well as really different fields – and the sessions have inspired lots of new ideas for the rest of my PhD,” she said.
Celebrating its tenth year, the EMBL Australia PhD Course continues to provide world-class training, cross-disciplinary learning and a supportive network, empowering the next generation of Australian research leaders.
Our sincerest thanks to:
- The PhD Course Organising Committee – Eduardo Eyras, Richard Morris, Qi Zhang, Nora Liu, Miriam Lynn and Evan Healy – and EMBL Australia training officer Ricki Mailloux
- Our wonderful course sponsors – the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical Analysis of Cellular Systems (MACSYS) and SMART CRC (Solutions for Manufacturing Advanced Regenerative Therapies CRC)
- SAiGENCI for kindly hosting the event
- SAHMRI for hosting our communications day
- the South Australian Genomics Centre, Australian BioCommons, The Kids Research Institute Australia and Microscopy Australia for delivering workshops, and
- to the many speakers who generously gave their time and energy.
