Mini-Symposium of the group in the girls scout home “Baustelle” in Dülmen

This year, we reached the site of our mini-symposium, the girls scout home “Baustelle” in Dülmen, by bike. It took us a bit more than two hours, mostly along the “Kanal”, in beautifully sunny weather. Once reached, our friendly host explained the long list of house rules we had to follow, we moved in and had lunch. As usual, the scientific programme started with Prof. Bruno Moerschbacher giving an overview of where our work came from, where it stands, and where it heads to. From the ill-defined chitosan of twenty years ago to today’s chemically well-defined second generation chitosans and tomorrow’s biotechnologically upgraded third generation chitosans, and beyond towards uncharted territories of fourth generation, natural chitosans. This was followed by the presentations of two of our four Bachelor students – two more unfortunately had been unable to join - showing their results so far and explaining the plans ahead – clearly, we are again looking forward to exciting projects, this year with the help of colleagues in other institutes of our university. Given our much smaller group this year, the poster sessions that followed on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning – with an excellent, mostly vegan barbecue in between and a few hours of sleep – were shorter than in previous years, but no less inspiring. We had more time per poster this year, and the time was well used for intense discussions and the generation of new ideas. Everyone presented the data for their next, soon-to-be-submitted publication – watch out for great stories to unfold!