The 2025 Society for In Vitro Biology’s Annual Meeting returned to The Main – Norfolk, VA
The Society for In Vitro Biology (SIVB) returned to Norfolk, VA where we actively engaged with science and each other during our in-person program. It was a chance to follow up on new and exciting findings in the field of In Vitro Biology, to reconnect with colleagues and collaborators and to meet new colleagues and set up future collaborations. It was, above all, a chance to meet students and postdocs – the incoming energy of the SIVB! This year brought together our uniquely diverse set of academics, industry and governmental scientists to share the great innovations coming from both plant and animal in vitro biology. We largely filled up the venue with over 430 attendees and over 240 submitted abstracts. In addition, we continued the virtual option for those who could not attend or who wished to re-review key presentations.
This year’s meeting – though half a day shorter than previous – contained a completely full agenda including a full Saturday schedule. This included a PlantGENE workshop on Fundamentals of Modular Cloning, a USDA grant supported panel discussion on The Role of Regulations on the Development of and Stewardship of Transgenic and Edited Plants and Animals, and two NSF supported tissue culture workshops (Optimizing Plant Tissue Culture Media Formulation: Modern Problems Require Modern Solutions and The Culture Club: Unraveling the Complexities of Media Formulations)
The meeting contained a diverse range of topics from Artificial Intelligence, to Media Formulation, to Cloning, to Synthetic Biology, to Human Health, to Organoids and seemingly every topic in between. This year we strove to create more opportunities for member scientists to present their work and we plan to continue to push for more late breaking research topics and encouragement for members to showcase their work in future meetings.
Our Keynote Speaker – Dr S. Eliza Lockwood – emphasized the impact of innovation to the health and welfare of society and the importance of communication for innovation to make the biggest impact. This message greatly complemented the student session on communication led by Society members involved in Toastmasters International and challenged us all as scientists to reach and communicate not only in scientific outlets, but also in societal outlets.
The meeting could never have come together without the incredible hard work of the whole team. This year was the first where a Vice Chair was appointed to help with the meeting and to learn the ropes for the next meeting. To this end, the Board appointed Ahmed Omar (former PBS meeting chair) to the role. Ahmed has already worked to securing the Keynote speaker(s) for 2026 in Reno which comes as the 80th birthday of the SIVB!
The meeting sections each did an amazing job with Zoe Zhu, the In Vitro Animal Cell Sciences (IVACS) Program Chair, and Carlos Garcia, the Plant Biotechnology (PB) Program Chair each putting together an exciting program. These programs along with the Plenary talks hit many major bumps along the way with changing policies causing last minute cancelations of some international participants as well as federal employees. Nevertheless, they delivered on a full, impactful program.
The Local Organizing Committee led by Matthew Willmann and Christopher J. Osgood provided us with exciting and interesting extra-meeting events. The Education Committee led by Brad L. Upham and student co-chairs Hannah Levengood, Ava Vaillant, Prasanna Valavanur Shekar, and Christina Yevtushenko provided student science, development and social opportunities, which were extremely well attended and received. Each year this committee is adding more content to better serve our student and post-doc members.
The meeting recognized many outstanding individuals and awardees. Dr. Wayne Parrott was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award, the Distinguished Scientist Award presented to Dr. Joyce Van Eck, and the Early Career Award presented to Dr. Nguyen T. K. Vo. Of special note this year was The Presidential Honor of Distinction presented to Dr Barbara Doonan for her long time and continued work in support of the SIVB. Details of other awardees are found within this report as well as on the SIVB website.
Michele Schultz and her team from Innovations Essentials made sure that the whole process went forward as smoothly and efficiently as possible. The SIVB owes a lot to the seemingly untiring support that we get from Michele!
Ahmad Omar is already developing a fantastic 2026 program along with Zoe Zhu, the In Vitro Animal Cell Sciences (IVACS) Program Chair and Heqiang “Alfred” Huo the Plant Biotechnology (PB) Program Chair. 2026 is a banner year for SIVB – 80 years!!!
Congratulations to the SIVB and best wishes for another 80 years! See you all in Reno!
Submitted by Allan Wenck, Ahmad Omar, Carlos Manuel Hernandez Garcia, and Zoe Zhu
