Steps forward in GENEGUT: consortium meets for online General Assembly meeting

On January 17, the GENEGUT consortium got together for the project’s fourth General Assembly (GA). The full-day meeting was hosted online, focusing on the progress achieved since the last GA meeting in Budapest, Hungary, and the steps needed for a successful second year of the GENEGUT project.

“What comes to mind when you reflect on the first 16 months of GENEGUT?”, was the first question posed in the activation brainstorming session to kick-off the meeting. The word cloud forming out of the responses of all participating GENEGUT members showed words like “collaboration” “challenge” “progress” . Once again, in response to the question “What do you think is most important for a successful completion of the GENEGUT project?” one word came up more than others: collaboration. With this in mind, the meeting was set out to be a successful day of exchange and discussions on how to join forces for an impactful 2024 for GENEGUT.

Following a warm welcome by project coordinator Prof. Caitriona O’Driscoll (UCC), and dedicated time to discuss the project management of GENEGUT, each work package (WP) was given 45 minutes to report on their latest progress, identify opportunities and challenges, and discuss their next steps with the consortium. “At this stage, every work package has identified their methods and techniques, and there is great progress happening. Now, it is time to seek the collaboration and input from other work packages to make GENEGUT succesful and impactful”, commented Caitriona O’Driscoll.

To stimulate this, the consortium organised an interactive session in the afternoon, asking all WP-leads to identify synergies and opportunities for exchange among all disciplines in the project. Encouraged to follow these opportunities, the consortium is committed to continue the work on GENEGUT towards a novel, safe RNA-based therapy for ileal Crohn’s Disease.

What’s next?

The next in-person General Assembly meeting will take place in June 2024, hosted by GENEGUT partner i3S in Porto, Portugal. Watch this space and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for more project updates.