The Gujarat Cancer & Research Institute (GC & RI) and Gujarat Cancer Society had organized the 27 th Annual Convention of Indian Association for Cancer Research & International Symposium on Frontiers in Functional Genomics on February 6 to 9, 2008 at Cama Hall. Dr. Sunil Trivedi, Senior Scientific Officer & In-Charge, Receptor & Growth factor Laboratory was the organizing secretary of the event.

Pre-conference event ‘ Continuing Cancer research Education' (CCRE) was held on Feb.6 th , 2008. It was designed especially for the benefit of the students (especially Ph. D. students); was conceived and designed by Dr. Sunil Trivedi with a vision to strengthen the awareness of students through a series of lectures by distinguished national and international faculty appended with a KAP ( K nowledge, A ptitude and P ractice) survey. This was a new concept introduced for the first time in the history of IACR .

The scientific program of the convention focused on the ‘Translational aspect' of cancer research and enlightened the scientists with a new glow and direction with the focal theme of ‘Networking Research to Applications' . All the delegates and invitees had a close interaction during this meeting.

The second day of the meeting was an International Symposium on ‘Functional Genomics'. The key note address was by Dr. Martin Piccart ( Belgium ) on translational research in breast cancer. The other speakers were enumerated several aspects of functional genomics and their applications in the cancer diagnosis and treatment.

A total of 200 participants from all over India participated at the convention. The masters of different areas in cancer research from India was well as from around the globe were the resource faculty for IACRCON-2008. Twenty three eminent international experts in various super-specialties of cancer research from U.S.A, Switzerland , Finland , Germany , Belgium and Netherlands shared their expertise. Twenty national resource faculties joined them for the discussions sharing the common platform. Young scientists presented their work at the award sessions (both oral and poster presentations). There were 64 posters in the non-award category that were presented during two days of the meeting. All the delegates and guest faculty praised the Organizing Secretary, Dr. Sunil Trivedi for the excellent team work, the outstanding scientific content of all four days of the event and a good hospitality during the convention.