iwCLL 2013: Day One

By Bkoffman
So far iwCLL 2013 has been a very cutting edge and bench science driven conference. Great stuff, but not easy stuff to digest.
Tomorrow that changes with more "clinical" presentations.
I need to sleep and not blog, but expect video interviews when I get home from three of the speakers today: George Calin on micro-RNA, Juan Castro on the micro-environment, and Jan Burger on a review of all the mid morning presentations.
This is important stuff we patients need to understand and the doctors that I interviewed do a great job of making it accessible. This is the basic science that molds the future of therapy that they are discussing.
Spent hours reviewing the many excellent poster presentations.
One tidbit: Notch1 and 11q del may be mutually exclusive. Who knew?
My brain is exploding. So much new information.
I will try to hold your hand as I share over the next several weeks all that I have discovered here in Cologne on day one.
Met many old friends and made some new ones. Working hard on some patient advocacy plans with some of the people here. Stay tuned.
Tomorrow looks to be just as busy or busier with at least three interviews lined up, but everything changes at the last minute.
But my son and I will make the time to get out of the conference center and see the famous cathedral before we leave. That is a must. It is only a short walk (in the rain) from our hotel.
But first I must sleep.