Part I of the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research—it was all virtual—had 61,000 attendees. Part II is underway.

Here’s are some general comments about the meeting, its hundreds of talks and thousands of posters. Virtual conferences mean less of a carbon footprint, maybe a broader reach and a chance for attendees who cannot typically travel to AACR to attend virtually.

Commenting on AACR II and about virtual conferences more generally:

Dr. Elaine Mardis: the current president of the American Association for Cancer Research. She is co-Executive Director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Nationwide Foundation Endowed Chair in Genomic Medicine.

And Dr. Antoni Ribas the incoming AACR president. He is at the University of California Los Angeles. He directs the Tumor Immunology Program at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and is director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Center at UCLA.

Human brain tissue with malignant cells. 

(Credit: Frederick C. Skvara, MD/Visuals Unlimited/Corbis)