Productive second annual meeting in Oslo

On Tuesday 10th September, the MCDS-Therapy consortium descended on Oslo, Norway, for our second annual meeting. Although Norway is not a partner in our project, the location was ideal because the International Skeletal Dysplasia Society annual meeting (ISDS), which most of our partners were attending, was held there directly afterwards.

The purpose of our meeting was to bring all the project’s partners under the same roof to provide updates on progress and discuss the next steps. After a delicious working meal the night before, the consortium gathered bright and early at the city’s Hotel Bristol. The meeting started with a welcome from Deputy Coordinator Michael Wright and was shortly followed by training on trial assessments, protocol, and pharmacy. The Newcastle Clinical Trials Unit and Sponsor representatives then met independently with each international trial site to discuss their own processes and needs.

Following an incredible buffet lunch, the consortium set about the afternoon’s activities. This included updates from non-clinical partners, including Findacure, who are working on communications, Sciomics, who are leading the exploratory biomarker discovery research, and Finovatis, who are doing a fantastic job of managing the project as a whole.

The meeting was a great opportunity to put names to faces and proved to be very productive. A big shout out must go to the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute representatives who travelled all the way over from Melbourne, Australia, for the meeting!