At the end of June 2025, we celebrated the 30th ‘birthday’ of our Translation UK conference with over 130 delegates from the UK, USA, Germany, Spain and India hosted at the John McIntyre Conference Centre at University of Edinburgh. 

We are proud to have honoured a legacy that started with the first meeting at St. Georges’, University of London in 1993 where we continue to bring together researchers at all levels and provide networking and collaboration opportunities.

Matthew Brook, one of the Programme Coordinators heavily involved in the organisation of this event said:

“Not many scientific meetings series have been running for over 30 years, often due to the field not existing 30 years ago! ‘Translation UK’ got to celebrate its 30th meeting recently and this is likely a testament to the enduring strength of the mRNA translation research community in the UK (and beyond).

Over the years this meeting has seen countless major steps forward in fundamental understanding of mRNA translation presented, and many of those studies have originated and/or been supported by the collegiate and collaborative environment that Translation UK provides.

It is also notable that many core attendees, who now bring their lab members, first attended as junior scientists many years ago and that this continuous recruitment of fresh talent continues, with a large number of first-time attendees this year. So, here’s to another 30 years of ‘Translation UK’, beginning in Leeds in 2026. I’ll see you there.”

Covering all kingdoms of life, including topics such as translation regulatory mechanisms and consequences of their dysregulation, ribosome structure, RNA-binding proteins, diseases associated with translation dysfunction and therapeutics, and methodological advances. There was a strong focus on the conservation and similarities of the translational control machinery with our revered invited academic speakers covering topics such as:

• Bacterial (Allen Buskirk, Johns Hopkins University)
• Plant (Catharina Merchante, University of Malaga)
• Invertebrate mRNA translation (Tim Weil, University of Cambridge)
• mRNA optimisation technologies for human vaccine development (Veronika Georgieva, BioNTech SE)

Mixed across various talks and poster sessions were numerous fungal, viral, and mammalian themed discussions around translational components, processes, (dys)regulation, and/or applications. Complemented by a particularly lively discussion about terminology to describe translated regions of genomes and RNA, focused on the proposal of ‘Translon’ as a single term for translated regions led by Pasha Baranov (University College, Cork).

A powerful indicator that the field continues to produce significant impact was not only the quality of discussion, but that almost 70% of talks were selected from abstract submissions. Not to mention all flash talks were given by students or early postdocs and a significant number of delegates at the event were first-time attendees which further indicates the vitality of the field and the importance of the next 30 years in Translation. A snapshot of the experience in quotes obtained from surveys post-attendance:

“It's a great opportunity for young investigators to present their research orally”

“Science is cutting edge”

“The best part of the meeting was the variety of the science; how friendly the meeting was and the extensive networking opportunities.”

Special thanks to our Society staff and Programme Coordinators involved in the logistics and smooth running of this event, and the financial support from our generous sponsors, enabling us to keep registration costs down and widen participation.

Event sponsors: Bioscience Reports, BMKGene, Cambridge Bioscience, CliniSciences, EIRNABio, GENEWIZ, New England Biolabs, Promega, Vazyme, and Vectorbuilder.

Don’t miss out on our next meeting in 2026! To prepare early, discover related reading on the topic from across our journals:

• Ribosomal RNA expansion segments and their role in ribosome biology.
• The molecular mechanisms underpinning maternal mRNA dormancy. 
• Expanding the tagging toolbox for visualizing translation live.
• RNA-binding protein HuR regulates the transition of septic AKI to CKD by modulating CD147.
• Differential regulation of ATP hydrolysis of RIG-I-like receptors by transactivation response RNA-binding protein.