This year’s Summer School of the RIGeL section Biomedicine was again organized in cooperation with the graduate school of BIOMEDIGS. On September 25^th the Summer school started with a “tabtour” team event in Regensburg. The participants had to find several places in the old town of Regensburg and solve different tasks by using tablets, gps systems and compasses. The team capability of the participants was improved by searching for answers of tricky questions and by solving constructive tasks. The event gave an opportunity to increase the group identity and to get to know each other better. The day ended with a pleasant Get-together in the Café Vitus.

After the team event the Summer School continued as Biomedical Symposium for graduate students from 26^th to 27^th September in the “Tagungshaus Bayerischer Wald” in Regen. About 40 PhD students of the graduate schools of RIGeL and BIOMEDIGS participated in the conference. During the two days the PhD students presented 21 posters and gave 17 talks. The tight, but very interesting program also included a guest lecture of Prof. Dr. med. Hans-Joachim Anders from the Medical Clinic and Policlinic IV of the University of Munich.  Prof. Anders talked about “How to ruin your presentation” and gave young scientists helpful hints to avoid general mistakes in their presentations.

Like last year the presentations were evaluated by handing out evaluation sheets to the audience, which made it possible to the PhD students to rate talks and poster presentations in detail and to give better feedback on the contributions. With the aid of the evaluation the best poster and best talk could be awarded. The best talk award (100 Euros, sponsored by Biomol) went to Nina Patwary (AG Prof. Dr. Christoph Klein) for her talk about „Molecular profiling of EpCAM –positive cells isolated from the bone marrow of breast cancer patients“. The best poster award, a scientific reference book („Essential Laboratory Skills for Biosciences“ sponsored by Lehmanns) went to Anna Federlein (AG Prof. Dr. Frank Schweda) for her presentation about the „Characterization of the functional relevance of the local renin-angiotensin-system (RAS) in the renal collecting duct“.

The two-day symposium provided a great opportunity for PhD students to socialize and to extend their networks. We would like to thank the members of the organizing team and of course all participants who have contributed to the success of the Summer School with their excellent and ambitious presentations. We are looking forward to the next Biomedical Summer School in 2015!