By Ed Horton, June 2016

I recently attended the 2nd Matrix Biology Europe (MBE) conference in Athens, which is an international conference focusing on all aspects of extracellular matrix biology and aims to bring together researchers and scientists from across Europe that are working on matrix biology.

Along with interesting presentations from matrix researchers across Europe, one aspect of the conference was to select the winner of the 2016 Dick Heinegård European Young Investigator Award. This award was set up to commemorate the work of the matrix biologist Dick Heinegård. Each European matrix society selected one nominee for the award and six of these gave a talk at the conference. I was nominated by the British Society for Matrix Biology and gave a talk that summarised my PhD work, that involved using proteomics to study integrin adhesion complexes (PMID: 26833789; PMID; 26479319). I was delighted to be selected as the winner of the award at the meeting.

It was great to attend this conference in Athens and I would recommend this meeting to anyone who has an interest in Matrix Biology. Particular thanks go to the British Society for Matrix Biology for their support. The next meeting will be held in Manchester, UK, in 2018.