Translation UK 2026 brings the community together in Leeds
- Chris Hill
- Jul 30
- 2 min read
Chris was delighted to team up with Julie Aspden, Andy Tuplin and Ade Whitehouse and Eszter Csibra to help organise this year's Translation UK meeting at the University of Leeds.
We had outstanding programme of keynote and invited speakers covering diverse aspects of translational control. Nicolas Locker (Pirbright Institute, UK) discussed RNA granules and viral translation, while Mie Monti (Centre for Genomic Regulation, Spain) presented work on tRNA populations and modifications. Jay Brito Querido (University of Michigan, USA) shared structural insights into translation initiation and Leishmania translational regulation. The final keynote, delivered by Nicky Whiffin (University of Oxford, UK), highlighted advances in understanding rare genetic diseases caused by variants in RNA regulatory elements, including 5′ UTRs.
Talks and posters from across the Translation UK community showcased the breadth of the field, spanning viral translation, cancer-associated translational deregulation, ribosome heterogeneity, translation factors, RNA modifications and cellular regulatory mechanisms. It was great to welcome a number of first-time attendees, increasing diversity of topic, model and geographic location.
The meeting also provided valuable networking and career development opportunities. A "Meet the Speaker" initiative and mentoring lunch encouraged discussion across career stages. Although scheduled at the same time as an England Men’s World Cup game, our engaging career panel was a great successful, offering insights into careers in academia and industry. We thank panellists Pooja Jayaprakash (EIRNABio), Emma Thomson (University of Sheffield), Christine Rodger (Oxford Nanopore Technologies) and Joseph Waldron (CRUK Scotland Institute) for sharing their experiences and Liam Faller (Bristol) for chairing.
We are grateful to the Biochemical Society for its continued support of the Translation UK conference series, and especially to Rachel Inkster, Lauren and Hannah Atkins for their invaluable assistance in making the meeting a success.
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